Towa Uzawa sped down the final straight and held off Australia’s Rohan Browning to secure a spot for Japan in the men’s 4x100 relay final at the World Athletics Championships on Saturday.

Japan finished third in its heat in 38.07 seconds to reach the final for the first time since 2019. Ghana posted a national record of 37.79 to win the heat ahead of the Netherlands, which finished in 37.95 at National Stadium.

Canada (37.85), the United States (37.98) and Germany (38.12) were the fastest three teams in Heat 1. Australia (38.21) and France (38.34) qualified with the next two fastest times.

“First of all, we got a good place in the standings, so we’re looking ahead to tomorrow,” said Yoshihide Kiryu, who ran the third leg for Japan. “I think there are various things we all need to fix, so we’ll work on improving those.”

Japan is fielding one of its strongest ever relay teams, and kicked things off with Yuki Koike, Hiroki Yanagita, Kiryu and Uzawa in the heats.

Japan got off to a strong start, and the team averted disaster on a shaky handoff when Yanagita made contact with Koike's wrist before eventually getting a grip on the baton. Kiyru ran a strong third leg to put Japan in fourth place heading into the final handoff. Japan then suddenly moved into third after a botched handoff by Great Britain.

“I think we need to go back and watch it to see what happened,” Britain’s Jeremiah Azu said. “There's a lot of emotion, as you would expect. Right now, I can't tell you what happened, and I think I'm speaking for everyone. We've been very disciplined, our practice has been great. It's a shame, but we win together and we lose together, so we're all at fault. We can't single out anyone and we take it on the chin.”

Japan capitalized on Britain’s misfortune.

Uzawa, running the anchor leg, turned on the jets down the stretch to carry the team into Sunday’s final.

“I just saw the lap times in the results, and I feel like I can push it a little more,” Uzawa said. “I’ll start from zero and give my all tomorrow.”

Japan claimed bronze in the relay at the world championships in 2017 and 2019. The Japanese team failed to qualify for the final in 2022 and finished fifth in 2023.

“I want to go even higher, secure a medal and finish strong,” said Kiyru, who was part of the 2017 and 2019 teams.

Japan ran the fifth-fastest time in the heats.

"Qualifying for the final seems like a dream come true,” Yanagita said. “I was nervous before the race, but now I am relaxed.”

Ghana posted the fastest overall time.

“Everyone did their job,” Ghana’s Benjamin Azamati said. “Joseph (Paul Amoah) and I have been to two Olympics and world championships, and we motivated the guys to believe we could reach the final."

There was no celebration for the host nation in the 4x400 relay.

The team of Yuki Joseph Nakajima, Fuga Sato, Takuho Yoshizu and Kenki Imaizumi was sixth in its heat with a time of 2:59.74 and failed to qualify for the final.