texas relays mens invite 4 x 100

Today was a new low for US 4x100. Right before going onto track from clerk US team staff told the Blue and Red teams the opposite lanes than they were supposed to be in. The lead off legs were corrected by the starter at the starting line but the other legs were not. The "winning" team anchored by Gatlin managed to get stick around albeit by changing lanes and thus causing their American counterpart relay legs 2, 3 and 4 to not even get to run after the lead off came around the bend.

Much finger pointing ensued with team staff and meet officials but all in all a complete cluster of a day that was meant to be an evaluation of who would move on to represent the US at the World Relays in Bahamas.

And, unfortunately, the one USA relay coach that did a good job is banned (correctly) for 8 years for pushing dope onto Tyson Gay.

Funny how isiah young ran 3rd leg on the one team and has never ran 3rd leg before. Maurice mitchell a mainstay on fsu relays for yearsand usa world champs 2011 had ran 3rd leg more than 20 times during those years is running 2nd. Please explain why this is. Oh yeah dennis mitchell is coaching young now. Lets get is rite COACH MITCHELL.

One problem the US has had with relays has been using pro-based coaches who rarely if ever have coached relays and don't bring to the table the experience some of the top US collegiate relay team coaches could. Certainly these individuals are busy but perhaps some who have such experience and are not currently coaching college should be called upon.

Mitchell's training of Isaiah Young and including him is just business as usual with USATF relays. Active coaches should not have any say in relay member selection in a perfect world but baring that at least it should be a true committee of 3 or 4 to weigh in and make decision.

I guess u and me are the only ones on these boards that say the issue yesterday with the relay and personnel. The cluesless announcer stones and rawson never said a thing. Im not shocked they can see further than 5 feet in front of there face. They still couldnt pick Michael Stiger out in the 4 x 4 on sat in the invite 4 x 4. He led off. The cameras were on him and they still didnt know it was him leading off. The was callin his name off as the anchor. Cant they hire someone as a spotter for them. Obviously they dont know enuff about athletes. There R CONSTANTLY MAKING BAD CALLS OF WHO IS RUNNING.

Is there a good video posted yet? I want to take a look at it? It's pretty shameful how the U.S. can be so consistently bad in the technical aspects of the relay. I like the above suggestion to have a collegiate coach supervise really teams (maybe sponsors are why they haven't done this?).

Our announcers can barely identify a runner they've been watching for 25 laps, you think they can keep track of relay exchanges? Hah!

sprintcoach 19.99 wrote:

I guess u and me are the only ones on these boards that say the issue yesterday with the relay and personnel. The cluesless announcer stones and rawson never said a thing. Im not shocked they can see further than 5 feet in front of there face. They still couldnt pick Michael Stiger out in the 4 x 4 on sat in the invite 4 x 4. He led off. The cameras were on him and they still didnt know it was him leading off. The was callin his name off as the anchor. Cant they hire someone as a spotter for them. Obviously they dont know enuff about athletes. There R CONSTANTLY MAKING BAD CALLS OF WHO IS RUNNING.

To be fair, no one has any clue who Michael Stiger is.

This whole deal is inexcusable. Teams should have known 100% the lane they were in well in advance and been no issue. US teams should have been in different color uniforms to match the team names - red and blue. This helps spectators know who is who and obviously would have helped officials.

Texas Relays can be so much better on so many levels and hope they do. I was disappointed with the attendance on Saturday which was much less than in years past. The relays can be a much more exciting affair to keep people wanting to come.