Inside Track: Patton breaks silence

[rainy.here]

@Nikoluski

“I’m angrier about someone trying to get us out of there,” Patton said. “Had someone not protested, we ran 37.9 and it wouldn’t have been an issue. I think we got it right this time, but somebody was looking for the U.S. to mess up. If replays couldn’t catch it, high-definition cameras couldn’t catch it, the referee couldn’t catch it, and the official didn’t catch, that means somebody was looking for something. To say that we didn’t get it right on a technicality that someone went to fish for, on a rule that is so minute that you have dig for it in the IAAF rules book, that’s what bugs me.”

Huh? Exchanging the baton within the lines is an unknown detail that is hard to find within the rule book?

Being from Canada and having no vested interest, I don’t fault GB at all for protesting. It seems just as illegal to exchange outside the zone as it does to step on the line of a 200m race. If USTF is going to protest after the fact with video evidence (ala Beijing 200m), they need to be willing to accept the results of protests from other countries, after the fact, with video evidence.