diff --git a/backend/data_import/pipeline/labeled_examples.py b/backend/data_import/pipeline/labeled_examples.py
index ac53755d..a6257072 100644
--- a/backend/data_import/pipeline/labeled_examples.py
+++ b/backend/data_import/pipeline/labeled_examples.py
@@ -116,15 +116,16 @@ class RelationExamples(LabeledExamples):
                 [data.create_label(user, example, mapping, SpanLabel) for data, example in zip(self.records, examples)]
             )
         )
+        uuids = [label.uuid for label in labels]
         Span.objects.bulk_create(labels)
         # filter spans by uuid
         original_spans = list(
             itertools.chain.from_iterable(example.select_label(SpanLabel) for example in self.records)
         )
-        spans = Span.objects.filter(uuid__in=[span.uuid for span in original_spans])
+        uuid_to_span = {span.uuid: span for span in Span.objects.filter(uuid__in=uuids)}
         # create mapping from id to span
         # this is needed to create the relation
-        span_mapping = {original_span.id: saved_span for saved_span, original_span in zip(spans, original_spans)}
+        span_mapping = {span.id: uuid_to_span[span.uuid] for span in original_spans}
         # then, replace from_id and to_id with the span id
         relations = itertools.chain.from_iterable(
             [
diff --git a/backend/data_import/tests/test_tasks.py b/backend/data_import/tests/test_tasks.py
index be1275a4..cecb10ad 100644
--- a/backend/data_import/tests/test_tasks.py
+++ b/backend/data_import/tests/test_tasks.py
@@ -224,6 +224,7 @@ class TestImportRelationExtractionData(TestImportData):
             spans = [[span.start_offset, span.end_offset, span.label.text] for span in example.spans.all()]
             self.assertEqual(spans, expected_spans)
             self.assertEqual(example.relations.count(), 3)
+            print(example.relations.all())
 
     def assert_parse_error(self, response):
         self.assertGreaterEqual(len(response["error"]), 1)
diff --git a/backend/labels/models.py b/backend/labels/models.py
index c07de8ff..e5336d56 100644
--- a/backend/labels/models.py
+++ b/backend/labels/models.py
@@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ class Span(Label):
     start_offset = models.IntegerField()
     end_offset = models.IntegerField()
 
+    def __str__(self):
+        text = self.example.text[self.start_offset:self.end_offset]
+        return f"({text}, {self.start_offset}, {self.end_offset}, {self.label.text})"
+
     def validate_unique(self, exclude=None):
         allow_overlapping = getattr(self.example.project, "allow_overlapping", False)
         is_collaborative = self.example.project.collaborative_annotation
@@ -107,7 +111,11 @@ class Relation(Label):
     example = models.ForeignKey(to=Example, on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name="relations")
 
     def __str__(self):
-        return self.__dict__.__str__()
+        text = self.example.text
+        from_span = text[self.from_id.start_offset: self.from_id.end_offset]
+        to_span = text[self.to_id.start_offset: self.to_id.end_offset]
+        type_text = self.type.text
+        return f"{from_span} - ({type_text}) -> {to_span}"
 
     def save(self, force_insert=False, force_update=False, using=None, update_fields=None):
         self.full_clean()