OLYMPICS: Mens/Womens relay both DQ

[Andrew]

Yep, both the men's and women's 4x100m relay teams dropped the baton at the last exchange. BOTH OF THEM. I think a nice swim home will get them to concentrate next time.

[Ysabel Kid]

Problem is that the teams don't practice together like other relay teams. They are fast, but if you don't hand-off well, you get, well... dropped batons!

[rjohns94]

there is no reason that they couldn't practice since the teams were selected a month ago. they arrived in China three weeks ago. They had opportunity for daily practice. I ran and competed on college teams and on many many relay teams in huge meets all across this country and pan-am games. Even new members to each other can, in just about 30 mins, get their marks down close enough to have safe passes of the baton. given 30 mins over several days, they can perfect their marks for race conditions. In both cases, the anchor leg did not close their hand on the baton, and the third leg did not put the baton in their hand. I suspect the anchor took off too soon being pumped for the race, and the third leg did not run through the mark. EGOS appear to be more of the athletes personna now than when I remember. I ran with Skeets Nehimiah, Mike Shine, and a few others you might recogonize. Baton practice was part of every practice. Just no good reason for this.

[Hobie]

We were taught to lift the baton into the "V" of the receiving runner's hand until he started to tug on it and then let go. Dropping the baton was a sin akin to seducing the coach's daughter! Only God could save you from Coach and that was in PRACTICE. These guys (and gals) did it over hand, received the baton flat handed, etc. and the dropped baton was the inevitable result.

Personally, I think the relay is a team activity and these runners are too much individual runners. None of those who dropped the batons accepted responsibility.

[rjohns94]

I agree Hobie

[Andrew]

I takes a little practice to keep your arm as still as possible to make a good target for the giver. It takes a little practice to get good at nailing the receivers hand. That's it. Just a bit of practice and it is achievable. These guys are supposed to be the best in the world and they, obviously, couldn't take the time to practice the most important part of the game. I beleive they had a story earlier about how the US basketball team did badly last olympics because they couldn't play as a team. They now want them to commit to practicing in the off season for the 3 years before the olympics. I looked at dad and said,"They don't do that already!?".

I bet they rethink alot of there team practice schedules/techniques for the next go around. Get these individuals working together and we will be right where we should be: on top.