Gold for Jamaicas relay team

[Skeng DX]

at the Olympics


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oosXcmdYbc8

[Skeng DX]

Allyson Felix to Jeneba Tarmoh

bad idea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tl3jsFjE2o

[Peter R]

Tarmoh to Felix even worse?

[Historian]

Thanks for the Video

at the Olympics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oosXcmdYbc8

At least the USA men are getting competitive practice for next month’s sprint relay. At the moment, I can’t say the same for Jamaica.

But beyond this is the fact that winning a relay depends much more than merely foot-speed (I know you already know this ), although the speed is obviously important.

Skeng, do you remember the men’s 4x100-meter relay in the finals at the 2004 Olympic Games (Athens)? Not many people favored the British guys over the US for the gold, but look at what happened! The “secret weapon” here, of course, was clean, smooth baton changes.

I can give some many more examples to show why it is definitely tricky business forecasting the gold medal prospects in sprint relays. These many examples, of course, include the Jamaican women in the 4x100-meter finals at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the USA relay women in 2004 at the Athens Olympics and the Jamaican women in Beijing, and the US men last year in the finals in Daegu.

Each of the above I would have lost heavily on if I had placed bets (lol). So, the moral behind this is….

[Historian]

Yep, but....

Tarmoh to Felix even worse?

Unfortunately, the common factor is both mishaps is my girl Tarmoh.

Of all the people, I wish this had not happened to her. The USA will recover, however, so I’m not worried about them. Plus, as usual, they are getting in valuable competitive practice (in addition to depth in sprinting).

My concern is with a Jamaican women’s 4x100-meter relay team where the individual runners, with the exception of Shelly-Ann Fraser, do not appear to be in any way as “ready” as they were in 2008. Kerron, in particular, has not been particularly impressive all season.

[Twan]

other than Shelly, and to a lesser extent VCB, our other female sprinters are woefully out of form. WE will miss Aileen B for sure.

[Historian]

Let me quickly add....

Skeng, don’t get me wrong from my comments above. The view I expressed was simply one of caution based on my own experiences. But the fact is that Jamaica has to be considered the favorite going into the men’s 4x100 relays.

In fact, I’m a bit amused by the excitement in the commentator’s voice, particularly when we consider that yesterday’s performance by the USA comes nowhere near Jamaica’s winning time in Beijing (2008), Berlin (2009) and Daegu (2011).

With some practice on the part of our men, and with proper baton changes in the finals in London, then there is nothing whatsoever interesting about this 37.61 performance by the US men. It is not even as fast as the Carl Lewis-anchored US teams of twenty years ago (1992 and 1993.)

My question, rather, is this: Will Jamaica run a sub-37 in London, weather permitting?

[Historian]

Yep

other than Shelly, and to a lesser extent VCB, our other female sprinters are woefully out of form. WE will miss Aileen B for sure.

I fully agree with you.

[Willi]

Huh?

SS is cutting down her times fast aftervthe pull in April.

VCB ran one of her fasterst times ever at Trials, faster tan trials 2008 and you gus say ths?

Only Kerron is not giving hope, but still has run a high 10.9x so far.

[Exile]

The team that we always overlook is TT...they have I think 4 silvers now...and Thompson ran a good anchor recently...heard Bledman injured and he was the fastest but if they get that Baton around smoothly...the anchor leg will be crucial....

I think this the recent clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FltrEu1juU