CWG: Shirvington Unlucky?

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:rolleyes: SHIRVINGTON later labelled himself the “unluckiest man in track and field”.

I’ve witnessed enough success and disaster in this sport - in any sport - to know that You Make Your Own Luck. kk

Baton foul up hurts Australia

By Toby Forage
Fox Sports editor
March 25, 2006

IT’S been a running theme for top teams in the 4x100m relay this weekend, and tonight, Australia caught the last-change yips in both Commonwealth Games finals.

Gutted … late replacement Miller looks on. Pic: Getty Images

After being in with a shot of a silver medal - because let’s face it, nobody was going to beat world record holder Asafa Powell over the anchor leg - Adam Miller and Matt Shirvington failed to exchange the baton, and consequently bombed out of the men’s final.

Powell, meanwhile, gunned his phenomenal engine down the home straight at blistering pace, helping his quartet clock 38.36sec.

But another packed Melbourne Cricket Ground crowd was left stunned by what had happened to Australia’s quartet.

Daniel Batman and Patrick Johnson had done such good work to get the baton to Miller unscathed.

But Miller, a late replacement in the four after three-time national 100m champion Joshua Ross pulled out with a hamstring injury, called hand too early, and lost Shirvington in the confusion.

“Out of all the changes Matt and mine’s been the most solid out of all of them,” Miller said. “I just couldn’t catch him.”

Shirvington, only in the Games to run relays, was furious, yelling a word starting with the same consonant as he ran about 20 metres without the baton before pulling up, and sinking to his haunches in disappointment.

He later labelled himself the “unluckiest man in track and field”.

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“I never get good wind conditions, I get sick or injured at the wrong time, it’s frustrating. I know I’m going to feel worse tomorrow, that’s for sure,” he added.

With England, Nigeria and Trinidad and Tobago all disqualified yesterday, Australia had a great chance for a medal in this race, and it should have been silver behind the Jamaica juggernaut.

That medal instead went to South Africa in a time of 38.98sec, while Canada claimed the bronze in 39.21sec.

Australia’s female 4x100m four also claimed a bronze, but it too might have done better were it not for more last changeover shenanigans.

Anchor leg runner Crystal Attenborough had to stop herself from running outside the changeover zone as Lauren Hewitt handed her the baton, allowing Jamaica and England to fly clear for gold and silver respectively.

Attenborough almost fell back to fourth, but recovered well from her standing start to hold off a fast finishing Nigeria to claim the bronze.

Australia timed 44.23sec, while Jamaica, which has now had its most successful Games in history thanks to its sprint dominance in Melbourne, clocked 43.10sec.

England’s time for the silver was 43.43sec, and their finish was greeted with an ironic cheer from the crowd after the disastrous effort of its highly-rated men’s quartet last night.

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Is a baton pass really that difficult???

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No, but apparently for some folks maintaining concentration must be. Either that or the planning was weak.

Maybe in this case Shirvo was so determined to make his own statement at the Games in his one and only opportunity that he lost a bit of focus on the reality of the situation which, at least in part, was that he himself would be powered by the rush of adrenalin (absent in practice sessions) and the in-coming runner would be fading.

It’s all so unfortunate and the two guys involved in that misadventure must feel really unhappy.

It’s still a mystery to me why - when relays are such a crowd-pleaser - they still tend to be treated almost with contempt by many of the sprinters. Relays almost always seem an after-thought when, for all but three 100m men at any given meet, the relay will be a sprinter’s best shot at a medal.

Given that the sporting scene in all countries is overwhelmingly dominated by team sports (be iit NFL, Rugby, Hockey etc) I cannot understand why it never registers with sprinters that relays are a “team sport” and that they strike a chord with the general public in a way most individual events don’t.

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If some could only think with the same quickness that they run with the exchange wouldnt be such a horror…

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I guess the teams don’t use the formula in Tom Ecker’s biomechanics book to get their go-marks. Or maybe Shirvo was in shape to run a 10.03 that day instead of 10.6…

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Mortac, mind expanding on go-marks?

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Mind-expanding? Maybe he was imagining the incoming guy had been in 10.03 shape as well.

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i know they never had other options but from memory Miller is not the grestest of bend runners anyway…

and surely they cant blame the prep the 2 guys only had 1 thing to do in entire 10 days…

and can someone please get in shirvo’s ear and steer him in the right direction i must admit i was never a fan due in part, to reasons as shirvo said himself “there always something wrong with him” so much for positive thinking… but started to come around after his return to form in patches this season after the year he endured in 2005… but nobody gets that lucky or that unlucky so often… do they???

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There was a clip on Sportcenter that showed Jim Larranaga, coach of George Mason’s hoops team, quoting William Jennings, “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.”

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:slight_smile:

:slight_smile:

you betcha :slight_smile:

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In his book, basic track & field biomechanics. Go mark (in feet) is:

liberal mark:
(75 * (b-a)) /a
b= outgoing runner’s 26m time from a stand
a= incoming runner’s 25m time (85-110m split)

conservative mark:
(65 * (b-a)) /a
b= outgoing runner’s 21m time from stand
a= incoming runner’s 20m time (90-110m split)

example
(65*(3-2.05))/3 = 20.6