U.S. track has hit rock bottom

[GOLDENGREEK]

Brutal !!!

Put Them Back On The Juice A.S.A.P.

[shoeman530]

both 4x100 relay team had baton mistakes....


terrible!

[GOLDENGREEK]

FROM ESPN

Blame it on BALCO and its aftershocks -- although I personally would rather have skinny, slow, clean sprinters than big, fast, dirty ones. Blame it on bad administration and coaching. Blame it on a smaller pool of elite athletes who are interested in track. Whatever your cause of choice, Americans are laying eggs all over the Bird's Nest.


Especially when a routine round of prelims turned into Dropapalooza.


This was a rapidly recurring nightmare for the American runners. Both times, the baton snafu happened in Lane 2. Both times, it happened on the third and final handoff. And both times, the relay gaffe happened when a super-safe pass was the only thing necessary to easily advance to Friday night's final. To have failed in that context (twice) is staggering.


Admittedly, it was a wet night, and there was a slew of relay problems -- 11 of the 32 men's and women's teams were disqualified for baton drops or leaving their lanes -- but most of the other relay teams needed utmost speed just to qualify. The Americans had no such urgency, just a need for expediency.


Instead, they gagged at a particularly inopportune time.


Jamaica already had reduced America to ashes in the dashes. A country of 2.8 million people swept gold medals in both the men's and women's 100 and 200 and won seven of the 12 medals available in those four races: four gold, two silver, one bronze. A country of 300 million -- which has served as a collegiate training ground for many of those Jamaicans -- won four medals: two silver, two bronze.


"As a team, we're dominating this Olympics," said Jamaican sprinter Kerron Clark, who finished third in the women's 200 Thursday night. "[Usain] Bolt set it off for us, and after that, the Jamaican camp went crazy."


Combine the Jamaican steamrolling with the fact that the Americans will go medal-less in both 400 relays for the first time in modern Olympic history, and you begin to get the grisly picture. Add in the fact that no American men qualified for the finals of any jumps -- long, high or triple -- and it becomes more defined.





And this should make it crystal clear: Despite isolated triumphs, like sweeping both the men's 400 and 400 hurdles, the United States will have to come through in the final days here to avoid tying or breaking its record-low track gold-medal count (six, in 1972 and 1976).


Currently, the Americans have four gold medals at the Bird's Nest, one fewer than Jamaica and Russia. Four decent chances at victory remain: the decathlon, the women's long jump and both 4x400 relays -- provided they can hold onto the stick in the latter two. After Thursday night, you can't take any relay pass for granted.


The men blew it first in the 4x100. They were in a close race with Trinidad and Tobago when Darvis Patton came around the turn and reached with the stick. Anchor Tyson Gay reached back, and the baton hit his palm for at least an instant. Then, the two men separated and -- tink -- there it was, lying on the track.


That spurred a mixed zone mea culpa fest. Which at least beat pointing fingers.


"I take the blame for this," Patton said.


"I'll take the blame for it," Gay said, adding that he'd "never dropped a stick in my life."


"You can put it right on my shoulders," U.S. men's coach Bubba Thornton said.


Thornton said his runners had "done this a million times" but not anywhere near that number as a team. They did not practice handoffs in the U.S. after the Olympic trials because of Gay's hamstring injury. Here in China, Gay said, "We passed sticks a few times, and we had great sticks. Everything was perfect."


Until it had to be. Then it was a disaster.


Now Gay, America's preeminent male sprinter, goes home without even competing in an Olympic final, having bombed out in the 100.


"That's just kind of the way it's been for me these Olympics," he said.


It was even worse half an hour later for the women. For one thing, they'd just seen their countrymen blow up in shocking fashion, so you'd think they'd be in ultra-safe mode. For another, those with extended Olympic recall had to raise an eyebrow at who would be making that fateful final baton pass.


The third leg was run by Torri Edwards, who was part of a bungled exchange in the 400 relay in 2000 that resulted in a disappointing bronze. (It got worse earlier this year when the IOC stripped Edwards and her teammates of that medal, thanks to Marion Jones' involvement in the relay.)


The fourth leg was run by Williams, who massacred the baton pass in this event in 2004 by starting too early and running out of the exchange zone, DQ'ing the team.


This time, they appeared to come together in concert, hands reaching forward and backward smoothly, stick momentarily touching both palms. And then?


Oops, they did it again.


As the baton fell, Edwards covered her mouth with both hands, horrified. Williams went back and grabbed it, running to the finish line, later saying she never again was going to walk off the track in a relay after what happened in 2004. That was an admirable sentiment, but the result was the same: DQ.


"My hand was there," Williams said. "The stick was there. What I'm telling people is that the stick had a mind of its own. It's not my fault, it's not her fault, it's not either of our fault."


Correction: It's the fault of both. As is the case with the dismal performance of U.S. track and field in Beijing, there's plenty of blame to go around.

[shoeman530]

USA Track & Field to conduct comprehensive review of all programs

BEIJING -- The United States will conduct a post-mortem into a disappointing Olympic athletics performance that has seen U.S. sprinters eclipsed by their Jamaican rivals, the chief executive officer of USA Track & Field said.


"Once the Games are complete we will be conducting a comprehensive review of all our programs," Doug Logan said in a statement.

A miserable Games for a team that billed itself the world's best was highlighted by relay botches by both the men's and women's 4x100-meter teams on Thursday night.

"I, like all fans of Team USA, am extremely disappointed with the performance of our relays," Logan said, after the U.S. men's and women's 4x100 teams dropped batons in Thursday's opening relay rounds.

Logan said the review would be comprehensive, looking at all USA Track & Field's high performance programs.

One subject to be addressed, he said, would be "the way in which we select, train and coach our relays".

In remarks posted on his blog, titled "Shin Splints", Logan added the poor relay performance reflected a lack of preparation.

"These are professional athletes who are the best in their field, and anybody who ever ran a high school relay cringes when that baton hits the track," he said.

It is the first time since 1976 that the United States have competed and failed to win a sprint title at a Games. The Americans led the medals table at the 2004 Olympics and 2005 and 2007 world championships.

U.S. world champions were hard hit by the doom and gloom.

Men's 100- and 200-meter world champion Tyson Gay, still recovering from a hamstring injury at the U.S. Olympic trials, went out of the 100 meters in the semifinals.

Then a botched relay, in which teammate Darvis Patton and Gay failed to connect, added further frustration.

World women's 200-meter winner Allyson Felix and 400-meter favorite Sanya Richards also missed gold.

World 1,500-meter winner Bernard Lagat, a two-time Olympic medalist for Kenya, missed the final this time, his first in a U.S. vest. He will seek redemption in Saturday's 5,000 meters, where he is also the world champion.

The setbacks have implications beyond athletics, wiping out any chance the United States might have had of catching China for the Games's overall gold medals lead.

"We have to go back to developing our sprinters," high-profile sprint coach Bob Kersee, who led Dawn Harper to the women's 100-meter hurdles crown and Felix to a 200-meter silver, told Reuters.

"Whether it's the college system or just training and being prepared, we have to concentrate on taking it up to this level. We can be spoiled at times in the United States."