U.S. women win relay in upset; men flounder

EUGENE, Ore. – For the US women’s relay team, this was a shock.

For men – much the same.

The women stunned Jamaica in the 4×100 relay at the world championships on Saturday, while the men were favored for second after a sloppy exchange of batons during a ceremony. awake before anyone on this team was born.

Andre DeGrasse beat Marvin Bracy to the 0.7-second line to lift Canada to victory in the men’s race in 37.48 seconds.

Bracy fell behind in the anchor leg after twice reaching back and whistled about the exchange from Elijah Hall, who tumbled to the ground after he finally managed to get the stick into his teammate’s hand. .

“Not being clean cost us the race,” says Bracy tweeted before he passed the interview area. “There are no excuses. We allow you to sincerely apologize.”

American women feel nothing but love. Clearly beaten against a Jamaican team that won all but one of the six sprint medals at this meeting, the United States dragged on disappointment as Twanisha Terry held Shericka Jackson to 200 gold with a 0 win. .04 seconds.

She celebrates by doing the “ground bike dance”, jumping on one foot while spinning the handlebars of her pretend super-fast bike.

“I just felt the crowd go crazy,” said Terry. “It’s very electric.”

Team USA, consisting of Melissa Jefferson, Abby Steiner and Jenna Prandini, finished in 41.14.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica retains her mark. She has won gold or silver in every world relay she has participated in, since 2007. However, no one in Jamaica taking part in the relay thinks about second place this year. .

Jamaica’s squad included all three sprinters from last weekend’s 100-meter sweep and both members finished 1-2 at 200. Their fate could have been decided on a flip pass. The first mess between Kemba Nelson and Elaine Thompson-Herah.

“I don’t think there are any medals specifically designated for Jamaica,” says Fraser-Pryce. “We have to go out there and we have to work like everyone else.”

America won all six medals in the men’s 100 and 200, but the relays proved, once again, that pure speed isn’t all that matters in these races.

“You can have the fastest runner, but without the chemistry and no trust, and the baton doesn’t move through the exchange, you won’t make it that fast,” Terry explains. Terry explained.

Although the men of the United States will walk away with medals this time – they have been eliminated in six of the past 13 worlds and three of the past four Olympics – this cannot be considered any anything but an unsatisfactory outcome.

“You can get out of here for nothing,” Bracy said. “But we have to clean it up. We have a lot of work to do to keep improving.”

De Grasse, the Olympic champion in the 200m, was barely able to walk up the stairs four weeks ago while recovering from COVID-19. He failed to make it past the hot 100 meters last weekend and pulled out of the 200 altogether.

He won a gold medal with a team that also included Aaron Brown, who finished seventh in the 200 and eighth in the 100; Jerome Blake, who was also not a finalist; and Brendon Rodney, who was part of the Canadian relay team.

“Once I got the baton, I said, ‘Okay, I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with America and now I have to do what I can,” De Grasse said. “It’s great to spoil the party for them.”

America put together the same roster as the day before for the previous games, leaving a host of medals and paces – Trayvon Bromell, Erriyon Knighton, Kenny Bednarek and injured Fred Kerley – on the bench.

The hall continued. His background: fifth place on this year’s list of 100 national championships but also the NCAA relay title in 2018 at the University of Houston, where the legendary Carl Lewis, who was a frequent critic of the continuation of running strength of the United States, trained for many years.

“We tried to put together a team to have some kind of continuity and stickiness together,” says Bracy. “We did a great job yesterday. We just tried to go out and do the same thing today. Things didn’t go in our favor… and we took the ‘L’. .'”

A thought for men: Take a page from a book written by women’s relay coach, Mechelle Lewis Freeman.

Each team consists of the eighth-placed team in the 100th round (Jefferson), the fifth-placed team in the 200th round (Steiner) and two other teams (Prandini and Terry) that failed to make it through to their semi-finals.

The initial pass between Jefferson and Steiner may not have been surprisingly smooth, but neither was Jamaica.

Terry took the baton for the anchored foot four paces ahead of Jackson, who, two nights earlier, had run the second-fastest ever in the 200 lap (21.45).

The Jamaican finished, and closed a few more matches, but when Terry entered, she had her first American win at worlds in this race since 2017, when Fraser-Pryce leave after giving birth.

The relay medals gave the US 28 medals for the meeting, just three short of the record for a world championship. It will be prioritized for medals in the men’s and women’s 4×400 and women’s 800 with Olympic champion Athing Mu.

Other winners on Saturday included Emmanuel Kipkurui Korir of Kenya in the men’s 800, Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia in the women’s 5000, Grenada’s Anderson Peters in the men’s javelin throw and Pedro Pichardo of Portugal, who won the men’s javelin throw. defended his Olympic title with the world title in the men’s triple event. leap

The evening also featured a call (finally?) to Allyson Felix, who was lured back to the world stage to run prelims in the women’s 4×400 race.

It helped Felix win her 20th world championship and 14th gold medal after Sunday’s final. The US has won 4×400 in seven of the past nine worlds.