The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
U.S. women stun Jamaica, get gold
For the U.S. women’s relay team, this was a shock.
For the men — more of the same.
The women pulled a stunner over Jamaica in the 4x100 relay at world championships July 23, while the favored men finished second after the latest sloppy baton exchange in what has been a ritual since before anyone on this team was born.
Andre De Grasse beat American Marvin Bracy to the line by .07 seconds to lift Canada to the victory in the men’s race in 37.48 seconds.
Bracy fell behind in the anchor leg after twice reaching back and whiffing on the exchange from Elijah Hall, who went tumbling to the ground after he finally got the stick into his teammate’s hand.
“Not being clean cost us the race,” Bracy had posted on Twitter before he’d even made it through the interview area. “No excuses. We let y’all down my apologies.”
The U.S. women felt nothing but love. A clear underdog to a Jamaican team that had won all but one of the six sprint medals at this meet, the U.S. pulled the upset when Twanisha Terry held off 200 gold medalist Shericka Jackson for a .04-second victory.
She celebrated by doing her “dirtbike dance,” hopping on one foot while revving the handlebars of her pretend, superfast bike.
“I just felt the crowd go
crazy. It was very electrifying,” Terry said.
The American team, which also included Melissa Jefferson, Abby Steiner and Jenna Prandini, finished in 41.14.
Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce kept her streak alive. She’s won gold or silver in every world relay she’s been part of, dating to 2007. Nobody on Jamaica came into the relay thinking about second place this year, though.
Jamaica’s lineup included all three sprinters from its 100-meter sweep last weekend and both members of the 1-2 finish in the 200. Its fate might have been sealed on a messy first pass between Kemba Nelson and Elaine Thompson-Herah.
“I don’t think there’s any
medal that is designated just for Jamaica,” FraserPryce said. “We have to go out there and we have to work like everybody else.”
The U.S. men, meanwhile, had taken all six medals in the 100 and 200.
The relays proved, yet again, that pure speed is not all that matters in these races.
“You can have the fastest runner but if there’s no chemistry and there’s no trust, and the baton isn’t moving through the exchange, you aren’t going to produce that fast of a time,” Terry explained.
Though the U.S. men will walk away with a medal this time — they’d been shut out in six of the last 13 worlds and three of the last four Olympics — this can’t
be framed as anything but an unsatisfactory result.
“You could come out of here with nothing,” Bracy said. “But we’ve got to clean it up. We’ve got a lot of work to do to continue to get better.”
De Grasse, the Olympic 200 champion, could barely walk up his stairs four weeks ago while recovering from COVID-19. He didn’t make it through 100 heats last weekend and pulled out of the 200.
He won the gold medal with a team that also included Aaron Brown, who finished seventh in the 200 and eighth in the 100; Jerome Blake, who didn’t make the final in either; and Brendon Rodney, who was part of Canada’s relay pool.