He looked forward to getting back to the Bahamas this weekend for the second episode of relay showdowns.

Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt is competing this year, in what Birmingham said could only make the event bigger and better.

“I do enjoy the relays. It’s an added bonus that it’s in the Bahamas,” he told AthsVicTV. 

“... It has (captured the imagination of athletics fans) and I think it comes down to nations supporting it. In the past, we’ve had situations where certain nations haven’t supported events the IAAF has put on, and I would say the world cross-country has been one of those in the past few years.

“The importance you put on an event, that’s what makes it ... If you support it, you start to build up a bit of a history and certainly last year was good for the Bahamas.”

Birmingham and fellow Ballarat Project runner Ryan Gregson were part of an Australian record-setting men’s 4x1500m team last year.

The event has changed to a distance medley relay with Birmingham likely to run the mile, Gregson to run 1200m and fellow Victorian Jordan Williamsz tipped to run 800m.

Ballarat’s Sam Baird has been named in a five-strong squad for the men’s 4x400m in the Bahamas. Baird, 19, finished fifth in the Australian 400m title race last month.

Birmingham and Gregson teamed up with Australian 5000m and 10,000m champion Brett Robinson (Eureka) in a star-studded Ballarat Regional Athletic Centre team for round one in the Athletics Victoria XCR15 series a week ago in what was their final hit-out on home shores before embarking on European and American athletics summer circuits.

They overpowered their rivals in a Ballarat team that also featured Stewart McSweyn, Steve Moneghetti and Nick Van Raaphorst.

Birmingham is chasing a 5000m qualifying time in Europe and the United States for this year’s IAAF world championships in Beijing.

The standard for Beijing is the same as the 5000m qualifying time for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

This is definitely something Birmingham has kept in mind since qualifiers for the Games were released this month.

IAAF World Relays start on Saturday.

melanie.whelan@fairfaxmedia.com.au