SAME OLD STORY
Team USA’s Crouser defends shot put gold medal, 4x100 relay fails to reach final
TOKYO >> The scene at Olympic Stadium Thursday morning had a familiar look.
Or, in the case of the U.S. men’s sprinters, all too familiar.
Team USA’s Ryan Crouser dominated the shot put competition to successfully defend the gold medal he won five years earlier in Rio de Janeiro.
And once again the American men found a
way to mess up the 4x100 meter relay. Crouser won his second Olympic gold with the most dominant performance in the event’s history, all six of his throws landing beyond his old Olympic record (73 feet, 10¾ inches) and finishing more than 2 feet ahead of silver medalist Joe Kovacs of the U.S.
The Oregonian who was an NCAA champion at Texas, added more than a foot to the Olympic record with an opening-round throw of 74-11 and then came back a round later with 75-2¾ heave.
Kovacs threw 74-3¾ in the fourth round but it was as close as he or anyone else get to Crouser. When Kovacs’ final throw landed at 74-1¾, Crouser had a second gold medal.
He wasn’t finished however, launching a 7651/2 bomb for his encore, the second-longest
throw in history, just off the world record 76-81/4 Crouser set at the Olympic Trials in June.
Between 1920 and 1984, the Team USA men won the 4x100 in all but one of the Olympics the U.S. attended.
But the U.S. disqualification in the event in Rio marked the sixth time in the previous seven, the eighth time in the previous 12 major championships — Olympic Games or World Championships — that the 4×100 relay had either been disqualified or failed to finish.
In Tokyo, the U.S. men didn’t even make it to the final.
Kenny Bednarek, the 200 silver medalist, said Wednesday night what leg he would run. He also admitted that the U.S. team hadn’t practiced exchanges.
“We are all running fast right now,” said Ronnie Baker, the U.S. third leg. “Fred (Kerley) is running 9.8 (in the 100) and I am running 9.8. Trying to time that up perfectly with a couple of practices is tough.”
It showed this morning, the squad of Trayvon Bromell, Kerley, the 100 silver medalist, Baker and Cravon Gillespie finished a non-qualifying sixth at 38.10, Bednarek apparently saved for a final Team USA didn’t reach.
“We just didn’t get the job done today,” Kerley said. “No excuses.”
The latest relay debacle continued a Team USA dry streak in the men’s short sprints. Tokyo marked the fourth consecutive Games that the U.S. failed to win either the 100, 200 or the 4x100 relay.
“We’ve definitely got to pick it up for the Worlds next year and the next Olympics,” Gillespie said, “because this is unacceptable.”
The biggest surprise of the morning came in the 110 hurdles, where Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment upset world champion Grant Holloway of the U.S.
Holloway was not only a heavy favorite to claim the gold in Tokyo, but also projected to break the world record of 12.80 set by Aries Merritt in 2012. Holloway just missed taking down the mark at the Olympic Trials, running 12.81.
But he couldn’t hold off Parchment today, the Jamaican just edging him 13.04 to 13.09 in the final meters.
“The greatest feeling, the greatest feeling, I’ve worked so hard,” said Parchment, the bronze medalist at the 2012 Games.
“It’s unbelievable that I caught this guy (Holloway).”