The rule indicates an infraction if the outgoing runner even touches the baton before entering the zone but the situation may well still be under review as I don’t see any lane assignments for the final on the Berlin WC site.
I would bet, just like in the Beijing 200m, the Americans will have scoured films looking for any other violations for leverage/retaliation. The Brits better be 100% clear on their passes!
Re my earlier post. If the US decision is final and still there is no relay lane assignment posted, there may be another problem, perhaps pointed out by the Americans, a la Beijing 200m, or the Brits to get another competitor out. It will be a long night for a lot of people.
I’ve reviewed scores of high level 4x100 and there is a distinct tendency for the final exchange to take place early in the zone. If the US coaches had done their homework they would have made allowances for this.
The first US exchange was very good, but Rogers didn’t get enough of the baton and didn’t know what to do. He was very fortunate to get the baton to Crawford. Patton in a relay disaster. His initial movement is awkward, which means his acceleration is inconsistent at best. He should NEVER have put his hand back until he was in the zone. In theory he’s an experienced pro and that’s a high school mistake. To compound all of this he give the incoming athlete a lousy target. Does Harvey Glance coach the relay? If so that may part of the explanation.
On a side note, Japan has now taken the mantle of best passing team from France. They studied the latter’s method and now beat them with it. Quite impressive and an example of what can be done when unencumbered by politics, forced tradition and inaccurate assumptions.
Jamaicans cruise through, US scratched
By Dan Silkstone, Berlin
The Age (Australia)
August 22, 2009 9-37AM
Anthony Alozie, Josh Ross, Aaron Rouge-Serret and Matt Davies can all now say they ran against the great 4x100m Jamaican sprint machine.
Unfortunately for the Australians it was a little bit like going to see The Phantom of The Opera and copping the understudy.
There was no Usain Bolt and no Asafa Powell on show in the third heat of the sprint relay last night. Greater things are planned for those men, who will parachute into the team just in time to scorch the track in today’s final.
Instead, the alternates were more than good enough to book the Caribbean nation into a final that will provide Bolt the chance for his third gold medal and third world record of the meet. Not all of Michael Frater, Steve Mullings, Lerone Clarke and Dwight Thomas will be on the track when their nation runs for gold today, but they will all have done their part.
Australia ran third in the heat, behind the Jamaicans and second-placed Italy. There was disappointment but also pride for the Australian combination, still developing and focused more upon making a mark at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
They led the Jamaican for almost half of the race, before second leg-runner Ross was overhauled by Michael Frater down the back straight. Even so, the Australians managed a season’s best time of 38.93 – to finish tenth of the 17 teams and narrowly miss the final.
In the second heat, the United States 4x100 relay team have had their appeal against disqualification rejected.
The Americans were disqualified for an illegal baton exchange.
IAAF spokeswoman Anna Legnani says, “the team has been disqualified. The jury of appeal has upheld the decision.”
The US team were disqualified after the semi-finals because the exchange between Shawn Crawford and Darvis Patton was outside the designated zone. Patton was running the anchor leg.
The final is on Saturday, with the favoured Jamaicans safely through.
The defending champion Americans had the best qualifying time of 37.97 seconds. At the Beijing Olympics last year, the United States dropped the baton and were eliminated.
Even on a night when he did not set foot on the track Bolt was still the star. After receiving his medal and standing through the Jamaican anthem, Bolt’s eyes watered just a little as the entire crowd sang happy birthday to him. What a way to turn 24.
Even on a night when he did not set foot on the track Bolt was still the star. After receiving his medal and standing through the Jamaican anthem, Bolt’s eyes watered just a little as the entire crowd sang happy birthday to him. What a way to turn 24.
Any word on POwell’s status?
Let’s get it poppin Jamaica.
Actually, Jamaica is through with a ‘Q’ and the 5th time -same as Canada- from those going through automatically. Only France has a faster time but are a ‘q’ and perhaps France and Brazil now will be assigned in bad lanes (2 and 1, respectively) 
Still waiting for both relays…
A hypothetical question, if any other team had done something wrong in the relay, could the USA appeal against it now or not, since they are DQed (i.e., they can’t be reinstated anyway)?
Well. Well. Well. The Relay lane assignments are up and the “rule” on lane draws does not place the small qs automatically in lanes 1 and 2, as proven by Canada being in lane 8 and France in lane 1 but, miraculously perhaps, Jamaica find themselves drawn into lane 7.
Devine intervention or the IAAF?
The greatest concern of ALL relay team’s at any level is “to get the baton around.” The idea the baton will be exchanged before the zone seldom an issue. Hell athletes are probably not even aware of the line that indicates the beginning of the zone but you can be certain they know where the zone ends.
I don’t believe Doc was wrong for putting his hand back as all he did is do what he’s suppose to do when the assigned verbal cue is given. Shawn, on the otherhand, should have ran behind DP until they were safely in the zone. But again their one and only concern was to “get the batton around.”
Poor Doc P part of yet another US relay debacle
The other interesting drama is Britain. from the one side, they’d like to be farther out for a better bend but on the other, they might sneak into a big lead without the first 3 Jamaicans seeing it.
There is no way that this can be laid on Crawford. For exchanges to work the incoming runner can only concentrate on the exchanges as he is moving at top speed. It’s outgoing runner’s task to know where in the zone he is, especially in the front of the zone when his head is down and he is accelerating. The outgoing guy has “eyes” due to his lower velocity and this is on Patton once again. The concept is universal.
As for Crawford slowing until they are in zone, this sounds good in concept, but in reality it rarely works, especially at this level. The downsweep/push pass leaves little room for error as the target bounces and this becomes more of an issue as the outgoing runner accelerates. The downseep/push pass takes up more of the lane as this technique requires a very unnatural articulation of the arm. The pass must be completed behind the outgoing athlete, reducing the window of exchange. When you “wait” for the outgoing athlete to get going, more often than not, he gets away. Patton presents a lousy target too, so this is even worse in his case. This is not in any way on Crawford.
Contrast this with France, who had a similar issue on their second exchange. The incoming runner had the room to run up on the outgoing guy and let him get going. The upsweep exchange allows for multiple points of change. It doesn’t need to occur behind the outgoing runner. The articulations are natural and two athletes can share a lane/zone more comfortably.
If anything this fiasco is another Brooks Johnson disaster. He may be gone, but he is the one who enforced this silliness. US coaches need to open their eyes and look around.
Oh as an aside, go to Youtube and review championship relay videos. A very high percentage of exchanges occur early in the zone.
If Khmel and that Dutch guy are behind this, I hope they are ready for the hornet’s nest that they have just put their foot into. :mad:
Their passes better be clean today, AND they better not be relying on the Americans for competitions going forward.
The down-sweep pass, or more correctly the push pass was designed to prevent the risks associated with the up-sweep pass, shown in 1968 when the Polish team was winning he women’s 4x100 but, on third to forth, they ran out of room on the stick and dropped it. The Polish coach, later our coach, Gerard Mach, made the switch to the push pass then and there.
As for more opportunities, the up-sweep 's benefit is keeping the arm action in rhythm the whole time, so a miss might require a whole cycle for another try, meaning less chances and not more and looses on free distance. There is absolutely no doubt that the up-sweep requires far more practice time to perfect and is much better suited to teams who know their personnel far in advance and not those relying on trials to sort out the team, like the USA and Jamaica.
The other issue with the up-sweep is training considerations. Since relay training camps are required more often, the possibility of individualized training is diminished and therefor injury risk increased.
Disaster for the US women as well! I think the 2nd girl was in too far in the lane and stepped on Muna’s foot but I couldn’t really tell what happened. If it was the foot, it might have caused Muna to yank her hamstring.
I understand the evolution of relay passing. The push is a modified downsweep. The elbow articulates in two directions so I don’t recognize the push as being significantly different, at least from the standpoint of the incoming runner.
Mach advocated a relatively low, straight arm for the outgoing athlete. Effectively he was simply reversing the hand position of the outgoing runner and changing the elbow articulation of the incoming runner. This, in turn, created an extremely “hard” target. The natural position of the hand when grabbing an object is facing downward. Anatomically it’s a very basic concept that is overlooked. Additionally the low are position of the outgoing runner presents a poor target for the incoming runner. There is no differentiation between the hand and wrist. Finally as stated in the previous post, the exchange window is now reduced and cannot take place anywhere but behind the outgoing runner.
US teams, whether they are collegiate or National have attempted to mitigate some of these issues by forcing the outgoing runner to raise his exchange arm to an unnaturally high position. This does give a better target, but it causes a series of other issues. The target window is reduced even further and the acceleration pattern of the outgoing runner is disrupted, often severely (ie: Patton).
The upsweep does have the issue of baton management (how’s that for a euphemism 
). Interesting so did the US yesterday so I don’t think that the downsweep/push completely eliminates this issue. As for practice time required I am not at all sure that I would agree. What I would say is that since most nations have switched to the downsweep/push there have been far more drops and other fumbles.
Free distance is a false construct. It was created as a means of justifying the downsweep/push. The quest for this has ignored the primary goal of baton speed, which is after all the prime objective.
I haven’t been up to speed on the happenings here but the USA relay organizers/participants are morons!
You would think that the “experienced veteran” Doc would know… put it this way Doc, your start sucks and you just ran 10.3 and Crawford ran 19.7 into a headwind…so your ‘go’ mark needs to be moved out. For pete’s sake! F-ing adolescents can pass a baton around the track!
Too much Eccentric Hamstring work mon.
I can understand why the Jamaicans ran in lane 7 (same time with Canada, but they are the WR holders, whatever), but why France was in lane 1? I’ve beat the subject to death, I know…