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Another U.S. Relay Team Drops the Ball … Baton

August 21st, 2008 · 1 Comment · Beijing Olympics

This is ridiculous. An embarrassment. And it happens at every Olympics, seemingly.

A U.S. relay team throws the baton.

It just went down in the men’s 4×100 qualifying.  Certain to qualify, the Yanks couldn’t get the baton around the track. Dog bites man.

I’m not sure I’ve been to a big track meet (world championships or Olympics) in which the U.S. doesn’t drop the baton in at least one of the four relays. Or perhaps is disqualified for running out of a lane or past the exchange zone. Or handles the stick so badly that someone comes to a complete stop and a race is lost.

This time?

The Yanks managed to make two handoffs. It was the third where the wheels came off the wagon — and the baton ended up on the track.

Darvis Patton ran the second curve and came in carrying a slight lead. Anchorman Tyson Gay took off as Patton closed in. Gay extended his left hand back, palm up. Patton stretched his right arm forward, trying to pass the baton.

The baton seemed to hit Gay’s palm once, perhaps twice. But he never seized it. Patton let the baton go … and it fell to the ground.

It bounced. Patton bent over to pick it up … as if the situation could somehow be retrieved … and there went a near-sure medal, perhaps a gold. At the least, there went what would have been a very interesting 4×100 final between Jamaica and the U.S.

This happens all the time. You could look it up. A reporter with an English accent just asked USA Today’s track writer, “How often have your lads done that?”

A lot. If I felt like spending an hour, I could research it … but it happens so often I was thinking, “which one of these guys is gonna screw up the handoff?” even before the race started.

Someone will ask around, in the next hour, and Gay and Patton and the guys will say, well, actually, we practiced handoffs, like, one day … and the four of us never actually ran together at speed … That’s what they always say.

Who was at fault? I thought it was Gay. Another writer said he thought it was Patton.

Either way, it’s just inexcusable. Nobody drops the baton/runs out of the lane/botches the handoff as much as the U.S. does. And certainly no serious track country does. (Jamaica just managed to get it around, no problem, in the second heat.)

USA Track and Field should fire any coach whose guys drop the baton. If that’s what it takes to get the relay team out on the track and actually practicing this until they get it right … yes, hold the coach’s job over him.

Four guys just lost a chance for a medal. I’d feel bad for them if they weren’t just the latest American sprinters to screw this up.

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  • 1 Britain Rules the Track // Aug 5, 2012 at 6:51 AM

    […] calls it … and you will see some strange things. (And, no, that does not include U.S. teams throwing the baton and throwing the baton during the 4×100 or 4×400 relays; that happens at every […]

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