Oops, they did it again: Baton bungled
The U.S. men’s recurring problems in the 4x100 relay left them out of the final Déjà vu.
A slow exchange left the American 4x100meter relay team in an all too familiar spot at the Olympics on Thursday — out of medal contention.
The team of Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker and Cravon Gillespie failed to make the final after finishing sixth in their qualifying heat, extending a quartercentury of misery for the country with the deepest track team.
“We’re just all running fast right now so, you know, the timing and everything, the couple of practices we had,” said Baker, who ran 9.95 seconds to finish fifth in the men’s 100 last weekend. “Trying to time that up perfectly with a couple of practices is a little difficult, but it is what it is.”
No country has gotten much relay practice over the past week, or year, as the coronavirus pandemic limited training camps and workout sessions.
This didn’t seem to impact China, Canada or Italy, who finished 123 in the heat.
It also didn’t impact the U.S. women, a team led by Teahna Daniels and Javianne Oliver, who were also in the individual sprints and estimated they got about five relay practices in. They qualified for the final in 41.9 seconds, second fastest.
The U.S. men haven’t won the Olympic 4x100 since 2000. They’ve had lots of bad passes and disqualifications since. This time, the sprinters made it around, but it was ugly.
Finishing the second leg, Kerley kept misconnecting with Baker, to the point that they were practically side by side and barely running by the time they exchanged the stick.
How much practice did they get? “Don’t know,” said Kerley, who took silver in the 100 last weekend. “Not much,” was Baker’s reply.
This marks the 10th time since 1995 that the men have botched a relay at a world championships or Olympics.
“You’ve got to come to compete,” Baker said. “Same as every competition. Same mindset.”
Men’s 110 hurdles: Hansle Parchment of Jamaica won gold in the 110meter hurdles by overtaking American Grant Holloway right near the end.
Holloway, the world champion, was in front through nine out of the 10 hurdles, but faded on the last. Parchment flew past him to add an Olympic gold to his bronze from 2012 in London.
Parchment won in 13.04 seconds. Holloway took silver in 13.09 and Jamaican Ronald Levy bronze in 13.10 seconds. Shot put record: Ryan Crouser broke his own Olympic record on his way to defending his title. On his last attempt, Crouser went 23.30 meters (76 feet, 51⁄4 inches) to earn the first track and field gold for the U.S. men at these Games. Teammate Joe Kovacs was second and Tomas Walsh of New Zealand third.
Men’s 200: Canada’s Andre de Grasse won the race five years after finishing second to Usain Bolt. De Grasse won in a national record time of 19.62 seconds, holding off two Americans.
Kenneth Bednarek won silver in a personal best 19.68 seconds and 2019 world champion Noah Lyles took bronze in 19.74. Erriyon Knighton, the youngest member of the U.S. men’s track team at 17, placed fourth in 19.93.
Multisport breakdowns: The world champions of the decathlon and heptathlon are out of medal contention after breaking down during their last races of the hot first day.
After injuring her lower right leg rounding the bend in the 200meter event of the heptathlon, Britain’s Katarina JohnsonThompson found herself sitting on the track. She waved off medical staff and finished with a stride more like a race walk. She recorded a DQ — disqualified for stepping out of her lane — and withdrew.
About an hour after that, Niklas Kaul of Germany was wheeled off the track after breaking down halfway into the 400meter race, the fifth of 10 disciplines in the decathlon. He was 13th coming off the high jump — where he cleared 2.11 meters (6 feet, 11 inches) — but hurt his right foot. Damian Warner of Canada, the 2016 bronze medalist, led the competition with 4,722 points following the first five events. Steve Bastien of the United States was fourth, 353 points behind. Men’s marathon swim: Germany’s Florian Wellbrock has added a gold medal in marathon swimming to his bronze medal at the pool, winning the 10kilometer race at Tokyo Bay.
Wellbrock raced to an early lead and was up front most of the way on another sweltering morning in Tokyo. He pulled away on the final lap to win by a dominating 25.3 seconds in 1 hour, 48 minutes, 33.7 seconds. He also won a bronze in the 1,500meter freestyle on the last day of pool events.
American Jordan Wilimovsky was 10th.
Baseball: Lefthander Scott Kazmir, who pitched in three games for the Giants this season, kept the United States’ gold medal chances in baseball alive with five scoreless innings in a 31 win over the Dominican Republic in Yokohama. He struck out five and walked one.
The U.S. plays South Korea on Thursday for a chance to play in Saturday’s gold medal game. The Dominicans play for bronze Saturday against Thursday’s loser.
⏩ Tetsuto Yamada hit a tiebreaking, threerun double off the top of the 16foot wall in leftcenter in the eighth, and Japan beat South Korea 52 to earn a goldmedal game spot.
Volleyball: The American women’s team overcame the absence of starters Jordyn Poulter and Jordan Thompson, both sidelined by right ankle injuries, to beat the Dominican Republic 2511, 2520, 2519 and advance to the semifinals. They’ll play Serbia on Friday for a spot in the goldmedal game in a rematch of a semifinal the Americans lost five years ago in Rio de Janeiro.
Athlete’s mother dies: American shot put silver medalist Raven Saunders says her mother has died, writing on her Twitter account early Wednesday that “my mama was a great woman and will forever live through me.”
Media reports say that Clarissa Saunders died in Orlando, where she had been attending Olympic watch parties. Raven Saunders won silver Sunday.
At the medal ceremony, Saunders stepped off the podium, lifted her arms above her head and formed an X with her wrists. She explained: “It’s the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.”
The International Olympic committee was investigating whether the gesture violated a prohibition on political statements at medal ceremonies, but suspended the investigation after Saunders’ mother’s death. Cycling: Italy broke its world record to win the gold medal in men’s team pursuit. The team of Simone Consonni, Filippo Ganna, Francesco Lamon and Jonathan Milan wiped out a deficit of nearly half a second over the final five laps to beat Denmark and finish in 3:42.032. Artistic swimming: Russia’s Svetlana Romashina claimed her record sixth Olympic gold medal, teaming with Svetlana Kolesnichenko to win the duet. The Russians were heavy favorites in a sport they have dominated for more than two decades. Their last Olympic loss in the sport formerly known as synchronized swimming came in 1996 at Atlanta.