Tweet
Â
by Sieg Lindstrom
Relaxation, in Tyson Gay's estimation, may be the crucial missing ingredient for U.S. sprint relay teams of late. After watching the controversial Berlin zone call from the stands and being on the track for the major championships DNFs of '08 and '05, the double sprint-AR holder says, "I was extremely upset about [the Berlin DQ] because that's the third time that I've actually--well, I wasn't on the track that time but--my team was a part of a relay stick not getting around the track or being disqualified. So it really hurt.
"'05, we didn't get the stick around. I was out there on the track, third leg. I was anchor leg last year; the stick was mishandled or dropped, and then this year going out of the exchange zone.
"It's to the point now where it's uncalled for. We have to do something about it quickly because at the end of the day it's four guys out there who are trying to get medals, not just one. That affects four guys. It affects people's families."
Asked if U.S. relay gaffes and the emotional dissection thereof has spiraled into a feedback loop where the discussion makes athletes tense and continuously breeds more miscues, Gay says, "I really believe that. I honestly, truly believe that. It's sad because that's the funnest event you could possibly do or have. And when I ran in '07 and we won, we just basically stitched and patched a team together because we had so many people hurt. Trindon
Holliday pulled out, Walter Dix pulled out, Leonard Scott
[continues]
got hurt, Mark Jelks got hurt. It was like we just put a team together just to have fun. And it was successful. I think now that's the way it has to be. It don't matter about chemistry anymore. It's just about having fun and getting the stick around the track."
So what is the solution?
"Honestly," Gays says, "one, I think guys definitely have to put down their egos. Some guys like to run this leg or that leg. Like myself, I love running third leg. That's my favorite leg but as a team player the coaches asked me to run first leg [in Berlin] so I was going to be on first leg in the finals. It may have been a surprise to a lot of people but that's what I was going to do as I team player because we decided that was the best leg for me to be on in order to be successful against Jamaica. They are the World Record team, you know.
"So we were going to try to just get out and hold the lead. But it didn't work out that way.
"So I just think next time it's going to take guys like myself and some of the young guys coming together and me being more of a leader and just having fun and telling the guys, 'Let's just have fun and do what we do.' Because I know we have so much talent out there but we never get to showcase it because of mental errors."
###
Â
Â
by Sieg Lindstrom
Relaxation, in Tyson Gay's estimation, may be the crucial missing ingredient for U.S. sprint relay teams of late. After watching the controversial Berlin zone call from the stands and being on the track for the major championships DNFs of '08 and '05, the double sprint-AR holder says, "I was extremely upset about [the Berlin DQ] because that's the third time that I've actually--well, I wasn't on the track that time but--my team was a part of a relay stick not getting around the track or being disqualified. So it really hurt.
"'05, we didn't get the stick around. I was out there on the track, third leg. I was anchor leg last year; the stick was mishandled or dropped, and then this year going out of the exchange zone.
"It's to the point now where it's uncalled for. We have to do something about it quickly because at the end of the day it's four guys out there who are trying to get medals, not just one. That affects four guys. It affects people's families."
Asked if U.S. relay gaffes and the emotional dissection thereof has spiraled into a feedback loop where the discussion makes athletes tense and continuously breeds more miscues, Gay says, "I really believe that. I honestly, truly believe that. It's sad because that's the funnest event you could possibly do or have. And when I ran in '07 and we won, we just basically stitched and patched a team together because we had so many people hurt. Trindon
Holliday pulled out, Walter Dix pulled out, Leonard Scott
[continues]
got hurt, Mark Jelks got hurt. It was like we just put a team together just to have fun. And it was successful. I think now that's the way it has to be. It don't matter about chemistry anymore. It's just about having fun and getting the stick around the track."
So what is the solution?
"Honestly," Gays says, "one, I think guys definitely have to put down their egos. Some guys like to run this leg or that leg. Like myself, I love running third leg. That's my favorite leg but as a team player the coaches asked me to run first leg [in Berlin] so I was going to be on first leg in the finals. It may have been a surprise to a lot of people but that's what I was going to do as I team player because we decided that was the best leg for me to be on in order to be successful against Jamaica. They are the World Record team, you know.
"So we were going to try to just get out and hold the lead. But it didn't work out that way.
"So I just think next time it's going to take guys like myself and some of the young guys coming together and me being more of a leader and just having fun and telling the guys, 'Let's just have fun and do what we do.' Because I know we have so much talent out there but we never get to showcase it because of mental errors."
###
Â
Â
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
Comment