U.S. women's 4x100 relay gets second chance despite botched handoff

 

The U.S. women’s 4×100-meter relay team received the reprieve it was seeking.

The IAAF announced that the Americans will get to rerun the prelim by themselves on Thursday night at 6 p.m. EST. They’ll need to eclipse China’s time of 42.70 seconds to advance to Friday’s final and keep their gold medal hopes alive.

The rerun is welcomed news for an American team that appeared to have crashed out of its relay heat in frustrating but familiar fashion on Thursday morning. Allyson Felix botched the race’s second baton exchange with teammate English Gardner, but the U.S. filed a protest on the grounds that a Brazilian runner bumped Felix as she was preparing to make the handoff.

IAAF rules require athletes making a baton pass to “keep in their lanes or maintain position until the course is clear to avoid obstruction to other athletes.” If an athlete impedes a member of another team by running out of his or her lane — intentionally or not — the referee may order that the race be re-held or allow the affected athlete or team to advance to the next round.

If the U.S. runs cleanly Thursday night and advances to the final, it will be among the medal favorites in Friday’s final along with Jamaica and Great Britain. If the U.S. falters, it will be more heartbreak for two sprinters who have not enjoyed their time in Rio thus far.

Forced to focus only on the 400 meters in Rio after failing to qualify for the U.S. team in her signature 200, Felix fell just short of the gold medal she expected to win. Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas dove across the finish line to hold off a hard-charging Felix and force her to settle for silver in the 400.

Any medal would be an improvement for Gardner, a pre-race favorite in the women’s 100 meters who fizzled in the final. The American champion had set her sights on the relay after her disappointing seventh-place finish.

The sight of a botched baton pass in a relay was nothing new for USA Track and Field.

In the past two decades, the American men have either been disqualified or failed to get the baton around the track eight times at either the Olympics or world championships. The women mishandled the exchange in Athens and Beijing before setting a world record at the London Games in 2012.