Indeed, a classic maneuver by team USA coaching “shifting around the relay order at the 11th hour prior to the final”. Astounding…That said, we’ve seen an number of iterations of the Jamaican squad and they are smooth operators each and every time so further kudos to their preparation which renders them proficient regardless of who’s running which leg.
As for the women’s 4x100m, how bout Schippers blazing down the back stretch on her 2nd leg. I’m curious to see her split on that one.
…or hire away Randy Huntington from China to coach multiple events-relays, sprints, jumps etc. That said we’d likely never pay him what China has.
I really don’t know why Mitchell changed the order-had to question that move.
Agree entirely with LKH’s analysis of USA Relay Coach’s incompetence. I looked at some numbers (being a numbers guy). Very interesting to me.
1: Jamaica 37.36
SB Sum: 39.49
T. Gain: 2.13
2: China 38.01
SB Sum: 40.77
T. Gain: 2.76
3: Canada 38.13
SB Sum: 40.46
T. Gain: 2.33
4: Germany 38.15
SB Sum: 40.76
T. Gain: 2.61
5: France 38.23
SB Sum: 40.42
T. Gain: 2.19
6: Antigua & Barbuda 38.61
SB Sum: Unknown no time for Jarvis I could see for 2015)
T. Gain: 2.3 - 2.4 (if Jarvis is 10.3 - 10.4. The decimal of T. Gain is equal to the decimal of Jarvis’ 100m SB)
DQ: USA 37.84 (from photo-finish image + MSPaint. Don’t remember official time)
SB Sum: 39.31
T. Gain: 1.47
Rank of SB Sums:
- 39.31 USA
- 39.49 Jamaica
- 40.42 France
- 40.46 Canada
- 40.76 Germany
- 40.77 China
- 41.01 Antigua (guess)
Rank of T. Gains:
- 2.76 China
- 2.61 Germany
- 2.4 Antigua (guessing)
- 2.33 Canada
- 2.19 France
- 2.13 Jamaica
- 1.47 USA (DQ)
Nice analysis. With decent exchanges, team USA could/should have won and two teams could have broken the world record . I seem to remember 37.77 as the time for the US team before they got DQed.
China, Canada, France and Antigua & Barbuda ran faster in the heats.
China 37.92, gain 2.85
Canada 38.03, gain 2.43
France 37.88, gain 2.54
Antigua & Barbuda 38.01, gain 2.9-3.0 (possibly an overestimate)
the most important rule in the relay is get the baton around!
usatf rules state if an athlete doesnt attend both camps they cant run the relay. Thats not a dennis rule, but a USATF one. Cant fault him for that.
JAM wouldve won both relays either way imo.
Jam women leg for leg wouldve smashed the US, even with bowie. Dont forget they have one of the fastest 100m sprinters ever, and the 5th fast 200 meter runner on legs. USA had no shot
THe men side for jam legs 1,2,3 handoffs were ass. Thats one reason us was in the lead. If US had got rodgers the stick on time, bolt still wouldve ran him down.
Does Dennis Mitchel coach the relay for the USA?
The relay is all about getting along with each other and trusting and making sure the damn baton gets passed in the Zone. Rule one, first you have to be there.
Yes, Mitchell is officially the relay coach. I think you could have taken the coach of any of the teams that actually qualified for the NCAA finals 4X100 and gotten a better job. And one more thing for the Mitchell list:
In the women;s 4X400, McCorory finished 4th in the US Championships and didn’t make the team. Felix comes into the 4X4 as the world champion with the fastest time in the world, and that time is faster than McCorory has ever run. So, the anchor is McCorory? Felix runs what is apparently the 3rd fastest 4X4 leg ever run, gets USA the lead, and McCorory loses it. It is not Sanya’s fault that she has had health problems and has not been her old self at any time this year, and she clearly did not have what she normally has at the end of her leg. But the coach is supposed to give the team the best chance to win, not the worst chance to win. This isn’t even high school level coaching in my opinion.
Bromell has been faster than Rodgers since US Nationals, so Mitchell knew that Bromell was faster going into the relay camp, and Bromell was the bronze medalist. Bromell was .13 behind Bolt, and that’s 1-2 steps. Bromell didn’t get that bronze by more than a lean, but he was faster, and Mitchell would have known he was faster, so there was no reason to swap the normal positions in the relay camp. And in the first leg, 1-2 steps is what Bromell lost to Jamaica because he didn’t have a good reaction to the quick gun–and that’s not Bromell’s fault, but the coach’s fault for putting him (and Rodgers) in a position he’s not used to.
If you combine the 1-2 steps USA lost on the first leg with the lead they had due to poor exchanges by Jamaica, Bolt would have had to beat Bromell by more than he did in the 100m final in order to win gold.
And another one that Mr. Incompetent should be called on to answer: Why was Phyllis Francis, who made the US team and ran 50.51 in the 400m final, not on the 4X4 final (she was in the 4X4 heats), but 2 people who did not make the US 400 team were on the final? The difference between Sanya’s 4X4 split and Francis’ 400m final time (both from blocks) was much more than Jamaica’s margin of victory, and, once again, everybody knows that Sanya is not herself this year. What I see here is not just an incompetent relay coach, but one that is playing favorites and not respecting the younger athletes that are outperforming older, “more experienced” ones. Put Sanya in the heat and Francis in the final and they all get another gold medal. Yes, hindsight is always 20/20, but this one is pretty damn obvious.
USA did (much) worse than in Moscow and London due to hurdles and distance (Batman and Dutch take it too easy in heats, Dawn Harper DNF, David Oliver has a bad final, in addition to Richards-Ross and McCorory, and 1 medal in 800+ compared to 4). But the only relay gold we got was the one that Mitchell could not screw up, and only because Bahamas didn’t make it to the final.
As for the “team rules” regarding Bowie, do you really think Baylor or USC would keep Bromell or de Grasse off the NCAA 4X1 if they missed a couple of team practices because they had a low-grade hamstring strain? We are NOT talking about a case like Carl many years ago not wanting to go to a relay camp: Bowie WAS injured.
Some are talking about the USA underperforming due to World Relays, but the people underperforming really weren’t those running relays. Many issues were self-inflicted. I’m sure Batman and Dutch (and some others) are going to give the world competition level more respect, and Sanya should be back to form. But we don’t want Jamaica’s biggest advantage to be the US relay coach.
sayna didnt even make the final at the trials, she should not have been on the relay at all
I agree, usatf rules on relays are dumb, but like I said. Jam women win that all day with or without bowie.
Even with bromeil bad reaction, ja gave that lead back on the first and second handoffs. they were atrocious. THe US just decided to screw upon the worst leg to screw up.
Also these are supposed to be pro’s. I think dennis wanted his vets to take and give, and the rookies or young guys to give only. Mike only had to take the stick, much easier than taking and giving.
even with that bad reaction, bromeil gave the stick to gat wayyyyyyy before asafa got the stick.
]Asafa ran a monster back stretch, then I think he made it back up, then they had another busted handoff with him.
Even with all those mishaps from JA, bolt still got the stick at the same time mike wouldve gotten it.
No way in hell does mike beat bolt on that anchor.
So even if US had got the stick to mike bolt wouldve ran away from him.
Brommel’s reaction in the 4x100m was 0.174. That’s nothing out of the ordinary.
What’s amazing at this point is it arguably becomes necessary to acknowledge the continuum of baton exchange which at one end signifies a flawless exchange and at the other dropping it. In this context, the track record of the US Men is such that if the baton stays off the track it’s somewhat of a success. By association, the proficiency I stated earlier regarding the Jamaican men was rooted in their knack for not dropping it regardless of who’s running which leg. Clearly a far cry of what’s optimal; however, when the baton stays off the tack and the quality of the exchange is the difference maker in who finishes first, the Jamaican men are rarely the one’s who don’t- particularly in the big races.
The women’s 4x400 final https://youtu.be/42Xl_83ouMk
Aside from Novlene Williams clinic on maintaining form through the finish, Felix’s split will be something to behold. She made up 15+ meters to put McCorory in front (despite a fumbled exchange which is nearly inexcusable on the 4x4)- whose form then substantially fell apart coming off the final turn.
I got Felix’ leg as 47.8s. McCorory looked like she was trying to smack Williams with the baton as she was being overtaken by her. 
Edit: just saw the official split was 47.72. I had timed her at 47.73 and thus rounded it up to 47.8.
The two fastest women in history (both sub 48 from blocks) have run 47.6 and 47.7 relay splits. Most people are able to run within 0.5s of their best relay split from blocks. Even considering that she is not a good starter, Felix should be able to run at least 48.5 from blocks. I wonder why she is always so much faster in relays.
Nice going with the timing. Off by a mere hundredth of a second.
Indeed, Koch and Kratochvilova were flyers.
As for Felix, it would be interesting to see the average of where she receives the baton in the zone relative to the end of the zone- as the length of the run up, coupled with their acceleration, will determine the velocity each sprinter is moving at when their split starts.
So aside from the psychological arousal of getting the stick behind and having to run someone down, perhaps Felix routinely sets up farther away from the end of the zone and is therefore getting a more substantial flying start. This would yield a greater differential between her splits and her open time compared to other sprinters who might set up a few steps closer to the end of the zone.
Yes, there is a bit of that happening. She received the baton about for steps from the line and passed it about two steps from the line. That shouldn’t make that much of a difference though, maybe 0.2s? Even with a full flying start in the 100m and only one changeover, the anchor of a 4x100m relay team usually only runs 0.8-1.0s faster than their best 100m from blocks. For Felix it’s around 1.5s in the 400m where everyone else is only gaining about 0.5s. I think her race distribution is better in the relays. I feel that she ran quite unevenly in the individual race, running too fast in the first 200m and too slow from 200-300m. With more experience she should be able to run well under 49s.