Gotta hand it to relay runners
World’s fastest at 100 metres aren’t always best in the organized chaos of track’s team showcase
LONDON— There’s a move seen so often in the 4x100-metre relay that it’s as much a part of the event as the blistering fast sprinters and flag-waving victory laps.
It follows right after the look of horror and wildly flailing hands as though trying to hang on to something as precious as a baby. They can’t, they know they can’t and that’s when their hands go to their head in despair.
When the baton hits the track in a relay, it takes with it the hopes of an entire sprint team in the most exciting and unpredictable event of any track and field meet.
This is the race where the likes of worldrecord holder Usain Bolt and newly minted world champion Justin Gatlin can — and have — lost to teams full of men who can’t break 10 seconds in the 100 metres.
That’s because four runners in the relay can rise up and be far more than the sum of their parts. They can also turn out to be much less. Brazil, China, Japan and France have all captured medals at the Olympics and world championships ahead of the great sprint nations of Jamaica and the United States.
Saturday night’s relays at the world athletics championships can put an exclamation mark on a successful team of sprinters or give a losing one its last chance to regroup and get a medal.
Canada arrived here expecting to be in the first camp with two sprint medals in hand by now. But with the loss of Andre De Grasse to a hamstring injury shortly before the championships began, it finds itself firmly in the second camp.
“The relay is for the country,” says Brendon Rodney, who helped bring home a bronze at the world championships two years ago.
“It’s a team event. We try to do it for Canada and make everyone proud.”
The relays — Canada has a women’s team in the 4x400 here Sunday — are the only team events within track and field that encourage individual achievement. Team members used to competing against each other are thrust into a scenario that requires teamwork, a challenging exercise that can contribute to the unpredictability of the relays.
But there’s more, says Donovan Bailey, who won Olympic gold in 1996 and two world titles in this event.
“You’re in the middle of chaos . . . and you have to focus totally,” Bailey says, searching for the words to explain why it’s so hard to get that metal cylinder around the track safely.
“There’s not a whole lot of things that I can think about in life that compare. If you think about two cars at the Indy 500 and one guy is trying to high-five the other guy while both are driving by — that’s really what it is.”
When Canadians exchange the stick the incoming runner yells “high,” as in get your arm high and extended backwards with an open palm to receive the baton. But the outgoing sprinter who starts running based on a preset mark on the track rarely hears that. “You don’ t see them. You don’t think about them . . . you don’t even hear the incoming runner call,” says Glenroy Gilbert, who ran on the winning teams with Bailey and is now head coach at Athletics Canada. “What you do know is that right around here, I’m going to put my hand back and he will be there — it’s a feel.” Except when it’s not. The relay team, which finally broke the Canadian record that was set by Gilbert and his teammates at the Atlanta Games in 1996 when it earned bronze at last year’s Summer Olympics in Rio, has dropped the baton in its last two outings. “You can see how gut wrenching the relay can be. When they make little mistakes there’s no forgiveness and there’s no coming back,” Gilbert says. They fumbled the baton at the world relays in April on the first exchange and again in July on the third exchange. Not the confidence boost they were looking for, but they can move past it here. “It only affects us if we dwell on it,” says Akeem Haynes, who ran the leadoff leg in Rio. “Can’t undo the past. We just have to fix a few things and we will be OK. We are all confident in ourselves and One of the keys to winning a relay — there are many — is getting through the morning heats safely. After that, the team has little choice but to push its baton exchanges to the end of the passing zones to maximize speed. As Bailey puts it: “That’s the difference between winning and just being there.” But that means the handoff takes place within a step or two of going out of the exchange zone and being disqualified. To get that right takes teamwork and precise timing. That’s one of the reasons why Japan earned Olympic silver in Rio and Americans weren’t even on the podium. The more individual stars a country has — whether it’s Bolt, Gatlin or De Grasse — the less time it can devote to the relay training and the greater the chances that its fast men won’t be in top shape by the time the relay rolls around. Before he was injured, De Grasse had intended to run the 100 and 200. If he made those finals, he would have had six runs before the relay. Teammates Gavin Smellie and Rodney competed in the 100 heats and Aaron Brown in the 200 heats, but none advanced. A coach can never be sure what kind of shape his sprinters will be in by the time the second weekend of a championship comes around, and that’s why a relay team has six runners to fill four spots. Gilbert starts out with a dream team in his head that has the right mix of strengths — a fast starter, someone good at handling the stick in their left hand, a strong curve runner and a good closer — but in the end it comes down to something else. “We see who is left standing and we build our team with those guys.” He knows it’s been a difficult leadup, but still thinks the Canadians can earn a relay medal. “If they simply do what they’ve been doing, which is to leave on the mark and extend the hand and take the stick, there will be no problems,” he says while laughing, knowing how hard and complicated it all actually is. Even Bolt, who had no trouble betting on his ability to win the final 100 of his career here before finishing third, wasn’t willing to make any such claims about the 4x100 relay. “With relays, you never know.”
“If you think about two cars at the Indy 500 and one guy is trying to high-five the other guy while both are driving by — that’s really what it is.” DONOVAN BAILEY RIGHT, WITH GLENROY GILBERT