4 X 100 runner: "We're not discouraged."

Yeah THAT pissed me off. I dont' think the word was discouraged was it...but you got the point across. I simply cannot believe that Carmelita Jeter is not fuming mad about this. Two fvcking years in a row that neither the men nor the women make the finals of the 4x100 relay. Americans run more relays in their lives than anyone else from any other country, and yet we fvck up more handoffs on the international stage than any other legitimate national team. WTF?!?!

Maybe the US coaches should not use an injured runner that has already run 6 races. Also, Doc looked poor in the 100 final and was on the relay. If you have an athlete that can't accelerate as you have done in practice you are in trouble. In addition, the out going runner needs to give a steady target with hand flat and the incoming runner needs to run thru the zone. Also, mens 4x4 should stop passing the baton from left to left and not switching to the right hand.

If the answers are so simple, why aren't the coaches working on these issues? And it's not like this year's Worlds was some sort of anomoly --- rather, more of the same old mistakes. Why is it that no-one in the USATF (or the runners) seem to be upset by this state of affairs?

They need to pissed off beyond belief. Doug Logan has a job cut out for him! Get the goddamn relays around the goddamn track!

They need Vince Anderson to coach their relay. Shit, A&M would've medalled. I know that the members of their relay aren't from the same country, but still, a bunch of college kids can get the baton around and a bunch of "professionals" can't? What gives?

Too much rugged individualism on the U.S. team?

The interviewer on Eurosport asked how they were going to respond to this, and the answer from the young one (Alex something) was that they were just going to pray.

The college kids are a team, the US "team" is made up of individuals who do not even know they are teammates until a few weeks ago. We suffer because we simply have too many good athletes (how many 10.0 guys do we have). Other countries have the same athletes executing passes for years.

KUFI wrote:

The college kids are a team, the US "team" is made up of individuals who do not even know they are teammates until a few weeks ago. We suffer because we simply have too many good athletes (how many 10.0 guys do we have). Other countries have the same athletes executing passes for years.

First of all, a relay is a team event. Good relay runners can run fast AND execute good exchanges. It seems that the US has very few good relay runners.

Second of all, it's just not true that the other countries field the same teams each time. But they do have runners with no shot at making individual finals and therefore they probably focus more on relays in their training since that's where they'll get to run finals.

I suspect some of the Americans just don't care. They've already got their individual medals, the relay is a chore for them.

KUFI wrote:

The college kids are a team, the US "team" is made up of individuals who do not even know they are teammates until a few weeks ago. We suffer because we simply have too many good athletes (how many 10.0 guys do we have). Other countries have the same athletes executing passes for years.

The US girls failed because they rested Allyson, and the spot was taken by a college sprinter unexperienced at this level and had been racing with different girls. The thing that really pisses me off here is that we had TWO teams in Cottbus that would have won gold AND bronze in Berlin today.

We have enough top sprinters for two full teams, men and women. Let them practice together and race together.

...or else what? wrote:

First of all, a relay is a team event. Good relay runners can run fast AND execute good exchanges. It seems that the US has very few good relay runners.

Bullshit, we've got great relay runners.

Anyone at the Penn Relays this year? The U.S. 4 x 1 was on their game that day. Of course, it helped that Walter Dix exploded on the first leg and put the race out of reach.

Our problem is batons, not relay running. Too many coaches, too much turnover. We need to teach one system, and practice the f*** out of it.

Doug Logan certainly has his work cut out for him.

Who would you put on the A team and who on the B team? That's the problem. Everyone would want to be on the A team. What if one of the B team guys is having a great championship?

Coach's decision is the simple answer. Rather easy for the girls, as there were 2 teams in Cottbus and everybody knows who won.

I think what's important is to have the financial commitment to fund 8 athletes for men and women, rather than just the top 4 from 100m nationals plus whomever else gets in the list. Let them go to Europe, race together, train together in the pre-championships relay practice. But fund 8 athletes for the whole season, not 4 or 6.

I have no doubt that if we sent the second place TEAM from Cottbus into the semis, USA would have won the gold in the womens 4X1.

Somewhat similar situation in the mens semis, where Mike Rodgers is relatively inexperienced, had problems with the pass, Shawn had to slow way down, then Doc doesn't get going soon enough (perhaps overcompensating) and Shawn touches him before the zone.

Both DQs come down to inexperienced individuals, in my opinion, and we certainly have the depth of talent to fix this.

Simple explaination for the situation: Sprinters are dumb.

I coach at the high school level and spend an enormous amount of time trying to get my sprinters to understand the basics. Then we get to a meet and they just start running and forget everything. I have no such problems with the distance teams. Of course, there isn't the same kind of technical aspect to distance running, but they have no problems following directions in practice, where the sprinters are always having to be told what to do 3 or 4 times.

It's not a race thing either- Black, White, Green, Blue- most sprinters are just plain slow learners.

The Jamaican and Trinidadian sprinters looked pretty smart out there. Maybe you should ammend your statement to read, "American sprinters are dumb." And if they are, then it does not look good for other American athletes because the sprinters are the most successful ones the USA has. American distance runners are idiots by comparison.

By the way, the dumb people are the ones who could not tell that the interviewed athletes were trying to put on a brave face while seriously disappointed. Everyone here knows that if they had dropped a few f-bombs or refused to be interviewed, there would be 25 threads on here talking about how rude and ignorant sprinters are. So there you go - another classic case of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

If you watched the men's final, the Jamaican team had two bad handoffs - the 2nd and 3rd. Bolt got out too fast and had to slow allowing Trinidad to catch up, but they still got it done, and his speed eventually got them out front. Then Powell got out way too late and Bolt ran up on him really bad. Of course, how the hell do you get out fast enough when Bolt is running up on you? Either way, they still got it done. And with two bad handoffs, they still ran the 2nd fastest time EVER.

Bottom line. They got it done, however they needed to. f*** ups or not, they got it done.

Just give the women relay's to Pat Henry!