Enjoy - Merlene Ottey 1991 Relay Gold!

[Historian]

Among my most cherished memories of 4x100-meter running is Jamaica’s gold medal run in the 4x100-meter relay finals at the 1991 IAAF World Championships (Tokyo, Japan).

That wonderful team in the finals was:
Dahlia Duhaney (lead-off leg)
Juliet Cuthbert (backstretch)
Beverley McDonald (curve)
Merlene Ottey (anchor)

Enjoy the memory! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8iWrvI7ME0

(BTW, this video has both semi-finals as well as the finals)

[Islandman]

Thanks, that was a special victory for Jamaica. Katherine Krabbe ran a devastating backstretch flying past the Nigerian and making serious inroads on Cuthbert and the Russian. The Germans had a horrible final exchange but even so Merlene made it almost look easy, I think it would have been close if they had produce an average exchange.

BTW that Krabbe backstretch run is an example of a team putting their fastest runner by far on the second leg and making it the "longest" leg.

Now if you notice at the end of the second leg the Germans are handing over at just about the same time as the Jamaicans even though the Germans are way ahead at that point. Variable relay leg distances along with the optical illusion that curve running creates, is why it is often very difficult to determine who really ran the faster leg in a sprint relay.

[Historian]

Solid Points, Boss

Islandman, you have made some very valid observations.

I just want to make a few additional comments.

1. Merlene Ottey saved the day for us in that 1991 relay in that she ran down both Russia’s Irina Privalova and the German anchor. She did a remarkably similar thing with Privalova at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games to enable Jamaica to grab the bronze medal. After studying both anchor performances by Ottey, there is no doubt in my mind that the more impressive of the two (for me) was the 1996 run.

Incidentally, the only changes made in 1996 when we compare its structure with the 1991 team was that hurdler Michelle Freeman ran the lead off (replacing Dahlia Duhaney who I suspect had retired by then) and Nikole Mitchell replacing Bev McDonald on the curve. This was, in my opinion, a faster team and we might have taken the silver behind the USA if not for Nikole’s pulled hamstring (no way were we going to catch that USA team!).

2. To this day the USA 4x100-meter women have never raced to the finish line behind Jamaica in a global senior meet! At least our men can boast about finally beating the USA in 2012 in an accident-free 4x100-meter relay finals. However, I long to see the day when the USA women race to the relay line closely behind us (lol). Only then can we truly boast about beating the USA women!

Similarly, we finally beat the USA women in the 4x400-meter relay at the 2001 IAAF World Championships (Edmonton) only because Suziann Reid, the Jamaican-born anchor for the USA team, fumbled the baton and dropped it.

3. In support of your conclusion that “a team putting their fastest runner by far on the second leg,” I must add that it is a practice I have noticed often over the years.

I could cite several examples, but two will suffice:

At the 1997 IAAF World Championships (Athens), the USA women’s 4x100m relay team that set the previous national record ran with their fastest woman on the second leg. In 1997 Marion Jones was the fastest American (as you may recall that was her first global venture), and she had won the 100-meter gold medal earlier that week.

That USA relay team team was Chryste Gaines (lead-off), Marion Jones (backstretch), Inger Miller (curve) and Gail Devers (anchor).

The Bahamas did a similar thing at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and also in the previous year at the 1999 IAAF World Championships in Seville. Chandra Sturrup, and not anchor woman Debbie Ferguson, was the fastest Bahamian woman. However, in both global 4x100m relays, each won by the Bahamas with the exact team, Sturrup ran the second leg.

And of course, we both could give even more examples.

[Karl]

Very nice!!!