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The men’s 4x100m relay team, world champions of the United States, will not compete for a medal at the Tokyo Olympics after failing to qualify as one of eight teams for Thursday’s preliminary round final.
The US team of Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker and Cravon Gillespie finished sixth in the second of two sets in 38.10, dropping two hundredths of a second before the final.
Disappointment in the 4×100 relay is a familiar feeling for Team USA, despite hopes that a gold medal at the 2019 World Championships has finally exorcised the demons of the American relay that have been around for more than a decade.
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The team lost their baton in the first round at the 2008 Olympics, an illegal transfer in the first round at the 2009 Worlds, a fall in the final at the 2011 Worlds, a retroactive anti-doping medal strip at the 2012 Olympics, a pass poorly managed in the final at the 2013 Worlds, an illegal transfer to the final at the 2015 Worlds and an illegal transfer to the final at the 2016 Olympic Games.
The quartet just weren’t fast enough to the finish line, finishing behind Italy (with new 100m gold medalist Marcell Jacobs), Germany and Ghana in addition to the contenders. to medals, China and Canada.
“We just didn’t do the job today. That’s it, ”said Kerley, who ran the second stage.
The outrage spread quickly, as it always does when it happens.
“The United States team has it all wrong in the men’s relay”, great sprinter Carl Lewis wrote on Twitter.
“The passing system is bad, the athletes are running with the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment and totally unacceptable for an American team to look worse. than the AAU kids I’ve seen.
The American men will not win a medal they counted on in what turns out to be a tough Olympic track competition.
Shot putter Ryan Crouser’s gold medal around the same time as the relay debacle was the men’s first victory in the 7-day competition.
The Associated Press contributed.
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