{"id":111925,"date":"2021-08-05T07:33:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T07:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=111925"},"modified":"2021-08-05T07:58:24","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T07:58:24","slug":"us-sprinting-icon-rips-embarrassing-relay-farce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=111925","title":{"rendered":"US sprinting icon rips 'embarrassing' relay farce"},"content":{"rendered":"

A slow exchange left the American 4x100m relay team in an all-too-familiar spot at the Olympics<\/a> today \u2014 out of medal contention.<\/p>\n

And this time, not even racing for one.<\/p>\n

The team of Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker and Cravon Gillespie failed to make the final after finishing sixth in their qualifying heat, extending a quarter-century of misery for the country that brings the deepest track team to the Games.<\/p>\n

The botched relay performance prompted American sprinting legend Michael Johnson, a four-time Olympic gold medallist, to take to Twitter to blast the team.<\/p>\n

"This isn't rocket science," Johnson wrote.<\/p>\n

"Trying to get two people running full speed to exchange a baton within a 20m zone requires practice! Especially when you haven't won this event since Sydney 2000 due to drops and zone violations! Embarrassing and ridiculous."<\/p>\n

OLYMPICS BLOG: UPDATES, LATEST NEWS<\/strong><\/em><\/a> |<\/strong><\/em> TOKYO GAMES EVENT CENTRE: SCHEDULE, RESULTS, MEDAL TALLY<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The United States haven't won the Olympic 4x100m since 2000 and haven't made it cleanly to the finish line in a final since taking a silver medal in 2012. But they gave that one back because of a doping ban against Tyson Gay.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This marked the first time the US had failed to make the final since 2008, when Gay was involved in a bumbled exchange. The US got disqualified for another bad pass in the medal race in 2016.<\/p>\n

This time, the sprinters made it around the track, but it was ugly.<\/p>\n

Finishing the second leg, Kerley repeatedly misconnected with Baker, to the point that they were practically side by side and barely running by the time they exchanged the stick.<\/p>\n

Baker made up some ground on a fast-disappearing field and Gillespie tried to close on the anchor leg, but China, Canada and Italy finished 1-2-3 and the rest of the field pulled away, as well.<\/p>\n

This marks the 10th time since 1995 that the men have botched a relay at a world championships or Olympics.<\/p>\n

The women made it through with a no-drama heat of their own and will race for the medal tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A slow exchange left the American 4x100m relay team in an all-too-familiar spot at the Olympics today \u2014 out of medal contention. And this time, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111927,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111925\/revisions\/111927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}