Updated: Jun 18, 2023
The Canada 4×100 team caught a break in this year’s World Athletics Championships. They edged out the US with a time of 37.48 seconds, the fifth fastest 4×100 time ever.
Trayvon Bromell and Fred Kerley, some of the fastest sprinters ever, did not race for the US in these 4×100 finals. Bromell opted out, while Kerley, who had just won the 100m gold, got injured during 200m prelims and was unable to race.
This marks another disappointing 4×100 race from the US men in the past decade. They have won gold only once in the last ten years when they recorded the second fastest time ever in Doha.
This year, gold seemed to be within reach. As the US entered the homestretch, Elijah Hall maintained a lead over Canada’s Brendon Rodney, but the hand-off between Hall and Marvin Bracy was sub-par, leading to Hall falling over and Andre De Grasse winning gold for Canada.
This is not the first time the US has botched a 4×100. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the men didn’t even make it out of the preliminary rounds, even though they had just won the World Championships the year before.
In 2017, The men’s team lost to Great Britain by 0.05 of a second. In 2016, at the Rio Olympics, the US was disqualified after another botched handoff, this time by Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin. In 2015 and 2013, the US lost to a Usain Bolt- lead Jamaica team because of another baton mishap. In 2014, the US failed to make the finals again.
Overall, the past decade of US 4×100 sprinting has been filled with mistakes and losses, even though there have been many great sprinters. Baton handoffs have always seemed shaky and are something the US always does poorly. It might be nerves, but the 4×100 final isn’t a place they haven’t been, and a team of their caliber should repeatedly make the mistakes they make.
The Canada 4×100 team caught a break in this year’s World Athletics Championships. They edged out the US with a time of 37.48 seconds, the fifth fastest 4×100 time ever.
Trayvon Bromell and Fred Kerley, some of the fastest sprinters ever, did not race for the US in these 4×100 finals. Bromell opted out, while Kerley, who had just won the 100m gold, got injured during 200m prelims and was unable to race.
This marks another disappointing 4×100 race from the US men in the past decade. They have won gold only once in the last ten years when they recorded the second fastest time ever in Doha.
This year, gold seemed to be within reach. As the US entered the homestretch, Elijah Hall maintained a lead over Canada’s Brendon Rodney, but the hand-off between Hall and Marvin Bracy was sub-par, leading to Hall falling over and Andre De Grasse winning gold for Canada.
This is not the first time the US has botched a 4×100. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the men didn’t even make it out of the preliminary rounds, even though they had just won the World Championships the year before.
In 2017, The men’s team lost to Great Britain by 0.05 of a second. In 2016, at the Rio Olympics, the US was disqualified after another botched handoff, this time by Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin. In 2015 and 2013, the US lost to a Usain Bolt- lead Jamaica team because of another baton mishap. In 2014, the US failed to make the finals again.
Overall, the past decade of US 4×100 sprinting has been filled with mistakes and losses, even though there have been many great sprinters. Baton handoffs have always seemed shaky and are something the US always does poorly. It might be nerves, but the 4×100 final isn’t a place they haven’t been, and a team of their caliber should repeatedly make the mistakes they make.
