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WORLD INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS · TORUŃ 2026 · RELAY

Women's 4 × 400 metres relay indoor prize money

United States won the women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships in 3:25.81 and took $40,000. Second was worth $20,000 and third $10,000, and the money ran six deep, so the final paid $88,000 in all. A winning quartet indoors takes exactly what a winning individual takes, which is true of no other championship in the sport.

Six teams ran the final in Toruń. Every event indoors carries the same $88,000, relays included, and the championships put up $2,376,000 across 27 of them in Toruń. The two finals below are the Nanjing 2025 and Toruń 2026 championships, and the ladder under them has not moved between the two.

THE WINNING TEAM TOOK $40,000
THE EVENT CARRIES $88,000
TEAMS 6
FINALS HELD 2
PAID ACROSS TWO FINALS $172,000

The 2026 final

Toruń, 20 to 22 March 2026

$88,000 paid
The women's 4 × 400 metres relay final at the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships, with what each place paid.
POS TEAM THE TEAM TIME PRIZE
1 United States Bailey Lear, Rosey Effiong, Paris Peoples, Shamier Little 3:25.81 $40,000
2 Netherlands Lieke Klaver, Myrte van der Schoot, Nina Franke, Eveline Saalberg 3:26.00 $20,000
3 Spain Paula Sevilla, Ana Prieto, Rocio Arroyo, Blanca Hervas 3:26.04 $10,000
4 Poland Natalia Bukowiecka, Anna Gryc, Anastazja Kuś, Justyna Święty-Ersetic 3:26.17 $8,000
5 Great Britain Tess McHugh, Dina Asher-Smith, Louisa Stoney, Keely Hodgkinson 3:28.09 $6,000
6 Slovakia Daniela Ledecká, Viktoria Korbová, Martina Segečová, Emma Zapletalová $4,000
6 teams 6 countries — $88,000

The six paid places came to $88,000.

The 2025 final

Nanjing, 21 to 23 March 2025

$84,000 paid
The women's 4 × 400 metres relay final at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships, with what each place paid.
POS TEAM THE TEAM TIME PRIZE
1 United States Quanera Hayes, Bailey Lear, Rosey Effiong, Alexis Holmes 3:27.45 $40,000
2 Poland Justyna Święty-Ersetic, Aleksandra Formella, Anastazja Kuś, Anna Gryc 3:32.05 $20,000
3 Australia Ellie Beer, Ella Connolly, Bella Pasquali, Jemma Pollard 3:32.65 $10,000
4 China Yan Hailing, Li Fengdan, Zuo Siyu, Liu Yinglan 3:38.56 $8,000
5 Sri Lanka Harshani Fernando, Jayeshi Uththara, Nadeesha Ramanayake, Lakshima Mendis $6,000
5 teams 5 countries — $84,000

The five paid places came to $84,000, short of the $88,000 the event carries because nobody was 6th.

What each place is worth

The ladder, and who has taken each rung of it

$88,000 an event
The women's 4 × 400 metres relay prize ladder at the World Athletics Indoor Championships.
PLACE PAYS TORUŃ 2026NANJING 2025
1st $40,000 United States United States
2nd $20,000 Netherlands Poland
3rd $10,000 Spain Australia
4th $8,000 Poland China
5th $6,000 Great Britain Sri Lanka
6th $4,000 Slovakia nobody finished 6th
The event $88,000 $88,000 paid $84,000 paid
United States $40k
Netherlands $20k
Spain $10k
Poland $8,000
Great Britain $6,000
Slovakia $4,000

The winner takes 45% of what the event pays out and the other five places share the rest. That shape is the same in every event on the indoor programme, relays included, so the chart is the championship's ladder rather than anything particular to the women's 4 × 400 metres relay.

Everyone who ran the relay

All 40 of them, across the two finals

$40,000 to the winners

A team is named on the result table in running order. The purse is paid to the federation as one payment at every one of the six paid places, from $40,000 for the win down to $4,000 for 6th, and the split between the four is not published.

Frequently asked questions

How much does the women's 4 × 400 metres relay pay at the World Indoor Championships?

The event carries $88,000, split six ways: $40,000 to the winner, $20,000 for second and $10,000 for third, down to $4,000 for 6th. In Toruń that came to $88,000.

Who won the women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2026 World Indoor Championships?

United States, in 3:25.81 (Bailey Lear, Rosey Effiong, Paris Peoples, Shamier Little), for $40,000. Six teams ran the final in Toruń.

Do relay teams earn less than individual athletes indoors?

No, and the indoor championships are the only place that is true. A winning quartet takes $40,000 and so does a winning individual, with the same ladder underneath. Outdoors a relay title is worth $80,000 against a world champion's $70,000.

How many places does the women's 4 × 400 metres relay pay indoors?

Six. The ladder runs $40,000, $20,000, $10,000, $8,000, $6,000, $4,000, and 7th pays nothing.

Is there a bonus for a world record in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay?

No. The indoor card is the ladder and nothing else, so a world record is worth the place it won and not a dollar more. Outdoors a world record adds $100,000 on top of the place money.

Do the four runners split the prize money?

Not in any way that is published. The $40,000 goes to the team, and how a federation divides it between the four who ran the final, and the reserves who ran the heats, is its own business.

Where to next

The rest of the championships

Indoor Championships prize money holds all 53 finals, the 233 athletes who were paid and the $4,664,000 that was put up. World Championships prize money is the outdoor version, where a title pays $70,000 and the ladder runs eight deep, and Diamond League prize money is the series most of this field races all summer. The World Athletics Relays is the one championship in the sport with no individual event on it at all: 12 finals across two editions, $40,000 to the winning team and a ladder that reaches all eight teams in a final.

Every other event on the indoor programme

Every event at the World Relays