USA leads the women's 4x100m at the IAAF World Junior Championships (© Getty Images)
The USA has won this title at the past six editions of the IAAF World U20 Championships and with a formidable quartet, headed by teen sprint sensation Candace Hill, they should make it a magnificent seven in a row in Bydgoszcz.
Hill holds the world U18 best, having famously clocked 10.98 last year at the age of 16, a month before going on to take the sprint double at the IAAF World Youth Championships Cali 2015. She will be backed up here by Jayla Kirkland, Celera Barnes and Taylor Bennett, who have all run 11.41 or faster this year and filled the minor places behind Hill at the US Junior Championships in Clovis, California, last month.
If the US sprinters have crisp baton exchanges, there’s a chance the championship record of 43.40, held by Jamaica since 2002, will be under threat.
Their quartet appears so strong that perhaps only misfortune can stop them winning gold, but if there is to be an upset then it is likely to come from one of their traditional sprint rivals in the Caribbean.
Jamaica last won this title at the 2002 edition in Kingston and they will be looking to repeat that feat 14 years on, with their team headed by 15-year-old Kimone Shaw, who has clocked 11.40 already this year.
Trinidad and Tobago, anchored by their own sprint sensation Khalifa St Fort, who has clocked 11.16 for 100m this year, is also likely to mount a strong challenge.
Poland has a rich relay tradition and hopes will be high that their star performer, Ewa Swoboda, will propel them to a podium finish despite being up against the sprint superpowers. The 18-year-old is the fourth fastest U20 in the world this year, having clocked 11.18 in St Polten back in May, and she will be backed up in Bydgoszcz by national U20 champion Olga Pietrzak and minor medallists Marcelina Winkowska and Daria Kurz.
Cathal Dennehy for the IAAF
