Last Saturday, Canada won gold in the 4×100-meters men’s relay race at the World Athletics Championships with a time of 37.48 seconds. The U.S was close behind with a time of 37.55 seconds and Britain took third with 37.83 seconds.
The game was going smoothly for the U.S for most of the race with the team having the lead. However, the lead didn’t last and on the final handoff, Elijah Hall struggled in passing the baton to anchor leg Marvin Bracy, falling, and costing much-needed time. Andre De Grasse from Canada took advantage of it and passed Bracy, sprinting to the finish line, and winning the gold with his hands in the air.
This race continues the curse that the U.S men’s relay teams seem to have with making mistakes at the top levels. The team didn’t have 100-meter world champion, Fred Kerley, with them, as he sustained an injury in the 200-meter preliminary heats. Despite the setback, fans still expected the team to win gold as the team still had four of the top 10 fastest men this year.
Hall and Bracy both commented on the final handoff, with Hall saying that “he would need to look at the film to decipher exactly what went wrong in the handoff.” Bracy showed some disappointment, saying, “it’s bittersweet. When you sweep the 100 and the 200, you expect to come out here and perform better.”
The disappointing second-place finish came right after the surprising first place that the U.S women’s team won in its 4×100 relay race. Melissa Jefferson, Abby Steiner, Jenna Prandini, and Twanisha Terry, the four women, had no trouble passing the baton around the track and finished with a time of 41.14 seconds, getting the third fastest time ever.
Many expected Jamaica to take home the gold as they demolished in the 100-meter race and won gold in the Olympics last summer. But similarly to the U.S men’s team, they had a bad first handoff, and they weren’t able to recover from the poor start.
Terry commented on the importance of exchanging the baton quickly, “You could have the four fastest women, but if you don’t have chemistry and the baton doesn’t move through the exchange zone, then what are you doing?”
The win marked the U.S women’s second 4×100 world title in the last three championship years and won gold in 2 out of the 3 last Olympic Games, with them finishing second to Jamaica in the Tokyo Olympics. In contrast, the men haven’t won Olympic gold since 2000 and were disqualified twice, failed to make it to the finish line once, and won two silver medals in their five world championship races between 2007 and 2019.
Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/sports/american-men-relay.html
The game was going smoothly for the U.S for most of the race with the team having the lead. However, the lead didn’t last and on the final handoff, Elijah Hall struggled in passing the baton to anchor leg Marvin Bracy, falling, and costing much-needed time. Andre De Grasse from Canada took advantage of it and passed Bracy, sprinting to the finish line, and winning the gold with his hands in the air.
This race continues the curse that the U.S men’s relay teams seem to have with making mistakes at the top levels. The team didn’t have 100-meter world champion, Fred Kerley, with them, as he sustained an injury in the 200-meter preliminary heats. Despite the setback, fans still expected the team to win gold as the team still had four of the top 10 fastest men this year.
Hall and Bracy both commented on the final handoff, with Hall saying that “he would need to look at the film to decipher exactly what went wrong in the handoff.” Bracy showed some disappointment, saying, “it’s bittersweet. When you sweep the 100 and the 200, you expect to come out here and perform better.”
The disappointing second-place finish came right after the surprising first place that the U.S women’s team won in its 4×100 relay race. Melissa Jefferson, Abby Steiner, Jenna Prandini, and Twanisha Terry, the four women, had no trouble passing the baton around the track and finished with a time of 41.14 seconds, getting the third fastest time ever.
Many expected Jamaica to take home the gold as they demolished in the 100-meter race and won gold in the Olympics last summer. But similarly to the U.S men’s team, they had a bad first handoff, and they weren’t able to recover from the poor start.
Terry commented on the importance of exchanging the baton quickly, “You could have the four fastest women, but if you don’t have chemistry and the baton doesn’t move through the exchange zone, then what are you doing?”
The win marked the U.S women’s second 4×100 world title in the last three championship years and won gold in 2 out of the 3 last Olympic Games, with them finishing second to Jamaica in the Tokyo Olympics. In contrast, the men haven’t won Olympic gold since 2000 and were disqualified twice, failed to make it to the finish line once, and won two silver medals in their five world championship races between 2007 and 2019.
Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/sports/american-men-relay.html