Yea and Lauren basically left mad early in Athens (not unlike Pickering here on the anchor vs. Asafa).
that was my opinion at the time but everyone wanted to blame Marion, so Lauren was excused- and never taught to fix the problem!!
Pickering just freaked out and couldn’t hold his mark under pressure. You can survive leaving a tad late but NEVER early. Early equals death!
I have coached relay racing for many, many years and almost all rank beginners try (blindly) to find and grab the baton, instead of just keeping a steady target and letting the incoming runner do his/her work. It usually only takes a few practice sessions to cure this, but I guess a few sessions is more than some Olympians are up for. It seems that every four years I watch the US teams and I don’t know whether to be embarassed to be a relay coach at all, or be proud that my teams can outpass the Olympic team.
Thoughts on the underhand/upsweep exchange that France used to employ?
Less efficient if not perfected but may be safer even if not perfected.
I know a D3 college coach that uses it and it was very effective when done correctly–beat some teams convincingly that had 3 guys faster than their best. Sadly, they also mess it up a lot and run out of the zones or don’t get the hand-off or some other mistake because it requires a lot of practice at full speed.
4 DQs in the 1st heat… way to not crack under the pressure at the Olympics.
Great quote Charlie. I am sending that one to the Aussie Federation for screwing over the Men’s 4 x 100m. They had two athletes running 10.29, and three ther athletes running low 10.40’s on slow Winter tracks and with SB’s in the 10.30’s. Good enough to make a Final - but then again we achieve sooo many Top 8’s that another one wouldn’t make that much difference!!!
by Jim Slater
BEIJING, Aug 22, 2008 (AFP) - Calling botched handoffs in the 4x100-meter relays a debacle'' of poor preparation and leadership, USA Track and Field president Doug Logan vowed future American athletics teams will be better. Poor passes on the final curve saw the men's and women's teams eliminated in the 4x100 relay heats, adding to the misery inflicted by Jamaican sprinters in a 100-200 sweep and trouble for favorites in several other events. We could win the gold medal in every single track and field event but if we don’t win a single thing in the sprints and relays, the public will view our performance as a disaster,’’ Logan said Friday in an internet web posting.
When we drop the baton in back-to-back relay races, the public views our performance as a disaster. We can be a much better team. And we will be.’’
A major review of all USA Track and Field (USATF) programs will be undertaken after the Olympics, Logan said. While similar evaluations are common, this will be the first since Logan took over last month.
We will conduct a comprehensive review of all our programs. It will include assessments from inside and outside the USATF family,'' he said. Included in the assessment will be the way in which we select, train and coach our relays.’’
American relays are typically assembled in the weeks before the Olympics with evaluations based on meets between the US Olympic trials and the Games.
Logan said he agreed with many e-mail critics who watched in horror as batons fell with US men and women well ahead. Not since relays debuted in 1912 have Americans failed to medal in a 4x100 Olympic relay.
They all say more or less the same thing: the dropped batons were reflective of a lack of preparation, lack of professionalism and of leadership. I agree,'' Logan said. Dropping a baton isn’t bad luck it’s bad execution. Responsibility for the relay debacle lies with many people and many groups, from administration to coaches to athletes.
Ultimately the athletes on the track are the only ones who can successfully pass the stick around the track, but they need proper leadership and preparation.'' Logan also noted that the US team, despite numerous setbacks from Tyson Gay missing the 100m final to Sanya Richards fading while ahead in the 400 and only one medal from three shot put stars, leads the track medal count. There’s no denying we have had more than our share of bad luck,’’ Logan said. The public sometimes sees these things and sees only failure, rather than the nature of the Games. When the men’s marathon concludes on Sunday, we’ll still be the world’s number one team in terms of medal count.’’
But he also said there was probably no one who could have stopped Usain Bolt, the Jamaican star who won the 100 and 200 titles in world record times.
In the men's and women's 200, I'm not sure there was any stopping the Jamaican juggernaut, at least not when it comes to gold medals,'' Logan said. Nobody from any country was going to beat 9.69 and 19.30.’’
US athletes won 26 medals at last year’s world championships and 25 at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Entering Friday, the Americans had four golds, eight silvers and eight bronzes for 20 total medals on the track, including sweeps in the 400 and 400 hurdles, with Russia next on 10 total medals and Jamaica on nine.
The Jamaicans and Russia each have five golds, however.
We won't have nearly as many gold medals as we've won the last two World Championships and gold is what gets it done,'' Logan said. The perception is that we’ve managed to muck up several key events. Some people have taken that key event letdown and applied it, somewhat unfairly, to the entire team.’’
I know it was the same conditions for every team, but with a wet track and floodlights reflecting in some patches, it may have been difficult to see the marker tape that teams put down.
PJ, what colour tape were teams permitted to use this meet?
And commisserations again to you and Olusoji Fasuba. The compulsory relay practice the day after his blocks sessions (when he should have been doing tempo or resting) wouldn’t have helped him for the individual race, and looks on the outcome that it didn’t help the relay team either.
I just watched the mens relay. What was Paton doing. Slam the thing into Gay hand don’t put it softly in there. I don’t think Gay did much wrong and did move it after Paton put it there.
I was taught hand straight out when receiving, the person giving slap it into the hand.
Those who think Australia was going well enough to send a 4 x 100m team are dreaming.
The reality is that as at May there were not at least 5 athletes all in sub 10.50 shape. Surely that should at least be the bare minimum expected of the athletes?
I was in Canberra in January and watched an Aussie tean anchored by Matt Shirvington get beat by New Zealand in 39s plus. That sadly was a demonstration of how we were travelling and nothing much improved through the course of the season as evidenced by the DNF in China in May.
As much as it would be great to have a team in Beijing, you cannot select a team because something might happen to another 6 teams and pave the way for he Aussies to qualify “Bradbury style.”
The team must be selected on merit and be considered a reasonable chance of making the final in their own right. Hoping the opposition stuffs up with a DQ or DNF so we can sneak into the final is pandering to mediocrity.
I don’t blame the selectors who gave the athletes every chance to prove they were worthy of getting a gig but came up short. In my view the selectors got it right.
The problem is with the athletes being out of form or chasing other agendas and a lack of proper relay preparation by the AA coaching staff.
There needs to be in independent review of the sprint coaching & relay prep structure.
I could see the tape Pickering put down in a long camera shot by the BBC. If I could see it then so could he, I have seen kids with more composure at the English Schools relays than he showed, :mad:
Excuse my ignorance but why wansn’t Fasuba on the 4x1?
Wr
Good Job
37,10
Three Golds and Three Wr’s for Bolt in a single olympics. Legendary
Powell’s leg was way fast too.
You might be right about Aussies not performing at their best. On the other hand, if it’s possible to send a team to the Olympics, why not just do that and see what happens? What exactly does sticking to whatever entry standard achieve?
He twisted ankle during the warm-up of a relay practice on what was supposed to be his rest day four days before the 100m. He did 3 times 60m full speed that day, with ice bag between each rep. This was minor pain, but it was one of the worst coaching moment in my life, Olu beeing “asked” to run for the sake of Nigeria, and me couldn’t do nothing to stop this foolishness. The pain became more intense after the 100m finished, and the day of the 4x100m heats, he couldn’t sprint with spikes. This was not a malicious attempt to save energy for the post-Games meetings, because Olu announced after the 100m quarter-finals that he will stop the season right after the Games.
On a side note, Ronald couldn’t do the 4x100m heats neither. He got injured in his quad on sunday, 2 days after the 100m quater finals, during a relay practice at 9am (the sprinters were told that the practice was avdanced from pm to am at midnight). The practice consisted in 9 reps of 30m for each guy, then giving the stick with 6 foor mark. 2 guys get injured during that useless workout. Note that Ronald, who was injured lasy year, never did more than 6 reps per sprint workout all year, for any distances, even 30m reps. He still ran 10.13 and 20.45 out of that small but quality training. Personal coaches wheren’t invited to this relay workout, which took place in a stadium oustide the olympic zone (where we have access).
A terrible afternoon for me, when my 2 guys tried to warm-up but couldn’t sprint so had to cancel an olympic race because of stupid relay practices.
kk : the colour tape were white for everyone. As for the wet track and reflection, i haven’t heard anyone complaining about it. Or it would have been considdered by coaches by a fake excuse by the relay coaches anyway!
After reading that, my first (corrupt) though is: too bad the Nigerian women medaled in the 4x1. It will probably somehow just reinforce their last minute relay sessions.
Oz should of sent a team, PJ , Shirvo, Burgess and Ross- that team could of run mid 38s and that’s in the mix in the final. All these guys ran between 10.29-10.32 this year. PJ and Ross were hitting form in June- and they both are sub 10.20 runners. Why not roll the dice and see what happens. The team was qualified, but AA preferred to send more officials than athletes, you notice Nicole Bogeman was on the team as a throws coach. ??? 
What incentive do the next group of sprinters have? Unless they run well inside the A standard, they got limited chance of making a team.
AA needs to run by business minded people, who have strategic visions of were the sport needs to be, the current mob are lacking in vision, insight and plain common sense.