Racers vs MVP 4x100 Utech classic

[Time]

OK, good point. Will there be a shocker fi a star not making the team?
Are JAAA rules clear that the top three participate in the individual races?
Remind me, there was an issue with Ottey in Sidney.

Yup, Ottey came 4th but asked that she be substituted for another team member, a courtesy that had been extended to others in the past. They squeeze out way Peta-Gaye Dowdie and let Ottey run.

Also recall that Shelly Ann was pressured to make way for VCB but Shelly Ann kep her spot.

[Muadib]

mi miss sumting ?

nuh di Beast shock up di place ?

All mek 3rd leg frighten and start run too early !!

lol ! woiee !

Yuh tink 9.9 in April innah di rain is ah joke ?

[Historian]

My Dream Team

True, both are excellent relay runners.

Assuming all are fit and available, what order would you run them in?

Carter-Powell-Bolt-Blake? Carter-Bolt-Blake-Powell?

Does it even matter? LOL

It’s a tempting question, and one which many track and field fans like to discuss. I generally hesitate to do so as in the final analysis it is neither here nor there because the coaches will make their choices.

But I’ll yield to temptation this one time and speculate. My dream team would be as follows:
Frater - Powell - Blake - Bolt

Michael Frater (first leg): Frater accelerates very quickly; remember also that he is the 2005 IAAF World Championships 100-m silver medalist.
Asafa Powell (backstretch): it is generally regarded as the longest of the four legs, which makes Powell ideal for this.
Yohan Blake (curve): Blake is a world-class 200-meter sprinter, so the curve shouldn’t be a problem for him.
Usain Bolt (anchor): Bolt showed us in 2009 and again in 2011 that he can handle the last leg very well. Also, he will not need to switch baton from one hand to the other (he has scared me in the past, for example in 2007).

There you have it, Islandman.

[Gamma]

Powell on the longest leg? Us knock has always been "not running at his best over 100 meters when under pressure".

I would go with that team but wig Powell and Frater switching legs.

[Willi]

He has no standing. JAAAs set the rules for who qualifies for JamDung.

[Willi]

Wrong on may counts.

First off the first and the last legs are the 3rd legs are the longest run in practical terms. The changeover zones ensure that exchanges on the first leg occur from 105m to 109m and this makes the 2nd leg not so long. The first leg runners needs the stamina to power thru the zone and keep up with the departing runner who is trying to get to full speed ASAP, while the incoming runner is tiring. The object is to exchange at optimum speed WITHIN the zone.

Franno is on record as saying Frater (like Lerone) runs a very poor bend. Yohan is also a poor bend runner, which is illustrated in the report of the 19.26s run last year in Brussels, even on a very wide track.

Bolt ALWAYS switches hands with the baton on anchor as he cant run with the baton in his left. The first and 3rd legs run with the right handed baton, while 2nd and anchor accept and hopefully RUN with the baton in the left. Bolt would be an ABSOLUTE disaster on the backstretch and he would switch the baton TWICE on one leg (as seen in Osaka 2007).

Bolts natural legs are 1st and 3rd, but could get away with anchor as its only one switch (still sub-optimal).

The best (Bolt anchoring) team if Asafa's groin holds would be Asafa-> Blake-> Carter -> Bolt.

My best team would be Carter=Blake=Bolt=Asafa. Guaranteed WR!

[Willi]

Rules changed long time since then. Top 3, unless there is a catastrophic loss of form.

[Don1]

Wrong on may counts.

First off the first and the last legs are the 3rd legs are the longest run in practical terms. The changeover zones ensure that exchanges on the first leg occur from 105m to 109m and this makes the 2nd leg not so long. The first leg runners needs the stamina to power thru the zone and keep up with the departing runner who is trying to get to full speed ASAP, while the incoming runner is tiring. The object is to exchange at optimum speed WITHIN the zone.

Franno is on record as saying Frater (like Lerone) runs a very poor bend. Yohan is also a poor bend runner, which is illustrated in the report of the 19.26s run last year in Brussels, even on a very wide track.

Bolt ALWAYS switches hands with the baton on anchor as he cant run with the baton in his left. The first and 3rd legs run with the right handed baton, while 2nd and anchor accept and hopefully RUN with the baton in the left. Bolt would be an ABSOLUTE disaster on the backstretch and he would switch the baton TWICE on one leg (as seen in Osaka 2007).

Bolts natural legs are 1st and 3rd, but could get away with anchor as its only one switch (still sub-optimal).

The best (Bolt anchoring) team if Asafa's groin holds would be Asafa-> Blake-> Carter -> Bolt.

My best team would be Carter=Blake=Bolt=Asafa. Guaranteed WR!

School dem Guru... dem nuh know seh ah you run dis

Dat deh Dream Team ah Nightmare an Bangarang combined

[Willi]

Not true. PGD was injured and tried to hide it.
Ottey did not ask (even if she did, that is immaterial), she was elevated to a spot due to the injury to PGD.

SAF was not pressured by JAAA, just by big mouth John Public.

[Islandman]

We have had this debate about the second leg before.

There was certainly a time when conventional wisdom was to put someone with highest top-end speed on the second leg because it was the "longest" leg. I even heard people like Howard Aris saying that in the 90s.

Whether what was meant was that the 2nd leg runs at top end speed for the longest I was never sure, but it was certainly the thinking for a long time.

I do not hear it as often these days. Comes down to how you structure the team and the handoffs I guess.

[Muadib]

who sponsah JAAA ?

awoah...

[Muadib]

yuh know yuh onions..

Carter-Blake-Bolt-Asafa is the optimal setup..

[Willi]

IAAF, but still no apples. We set our own standards upfront.

They could have changed it, but too late now.

Notice I said JAAA, not JOA!!!!

IOC rules the JOA not the JAAA.

[Muadib]

IAAF ? ah Puma mi ah talk bout.. mek JAAA try form di fool nuh...

[Historian]

Let Them Gloat

We have had this debate about the second leg before.

There was certainly a time when conventional wisdom was to put someone with highest top-end speed on the second leg because it was the "longest" leg. I even heard people like Howard Aris saying that in the 90s.

Whether what was meant was that the 2nd leg runs at top end speed for the longest I was never sure, but it was certainly the thinking for a long time.

Islandman, you’re right on all points, and yes, we have had this debate, even over on Willi’s site as well. I won’t argue Willi’s opinion at this time or with those others who gloat in his supposed correctness. This is a debate that could go on and on, and I can’t be bothered with that at this time.

But in support of the point you made and which I quoted above, we can look at some instances where this “conventional wisdom” (as you rightly stated it) is suggested in the placement by coaches. Very often in the past experienced international coaches used the fastest runners on the second leg!

1. In 1997 at the IAAF World Championships in Athens when the USA women set the US national record, that team had the fastest member on the second leg (Chryste Gaines - Marion Jones - Inger Miller - Gail Devers).

2. When the Bahamas ran their national record (91.92 seconds, I believe) and won the Olympic Games gold medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, that Bahamian team had the fastest woman on the second leg (Sevatheda Fynes - Chandra Sturrup - Pauline Davis - Debbie Ferguson).

3. 1992 at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, the USA team that set the world record at that time had the following lineup: Mike Marsh - Leroy Burrell - Dennis Mitchell - Carl Lewis. (Granted, in this case two-time 100-m record holder Burrell was probably the second-fastest on the team.)

4. I can even go back as far as the 1960 Olympics where the German 4x100-m team set a world record. That team was Cullman - Armin Hary - Mahlendorf - Laeur.

Hary was the 100-meter gold medalist at that Olympics.

I could go on and on (there are reasons behind this “Historian” name), but what would be the point?