by Stuart Weir
Dafne Schippers, Photos by © Krzysztof Wesołowski / World Athletics Relays Silesia 21
Happiest Quartet: The Cuban ladies who won the 4 by 400, Photos by © Dan Vernon for World Athletics
In story 2, Stuart Weir features the Good, the not so Good and only time will tell.
The Good the Bad and time will tell!
Good
Happiest Quartet: The Cuban ladies who won the 4 by 400. To be fair the Irish ladies who were second in the 4 by 200 were also quite delighted.
Range of medalists: 16 countries were in the medals including Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Botswana, Ireland, and Slovenia. Career highlights for some athletes.
Germany, Photos by © Dan Vernon for World Athletics
Dafne Schippers: Dafne looked awesome in the two rounds of the 4 by 100. Seeing her screaming her team on made me wonder if they had told her it was just a fun event!! Great to see her looking so strong after 2019 injuries.
Busy lady: Klaudia Adamek helped Poland win silver in the 4 by 100. Thirteen minutes later she was in the 4 X 200 gold-medal winning team. Disappointingly she was not selected for the 4 by 400 a full 25 minutes later.
National records: Ecuador and Portugal women and Poland, Ireland, Kenya, and Denmark’s men set national records in the 4 by 200, a great achievement but does beg the question: How often is the 4 by 200 relay run in those countries? I believe everyone else set a season’s best.
Netherlands, Photos by © Krzysztof Wesołowski / World Athletics Relays Silesia 21
Bad
Hollow victory: Italy in the women’s 4 by 100. The winners on the day but only because of the absence of the USA, Jamaica, and GB.
Biggest disaster: Netherlands 4 by 100. With Dafne Schippers timed at 10.19, Netherlands was more than half a second ahead of Italy at the final change-over. But Naomi Sydney on the last leg went too early and had to stop. Italy won; the Netherlands finished third.
Hardest changeover: Yet again the 4 by 200 proved to be the hardest baton change. Two years ago in Yokohama Jamaica with Shelly-Ann and Elaine Thompson were miles faster than everyone but lost the race on baton changes. This year two teams dropped the baton. 4 by 100 changes are done at lightning speed. 4 by 400 changes are more leisurely. 4 X 200 somewhere in between.
Temperature: Athletes running on tracksuit pants and those waiting to run their legs wrapped in blankets as they waited. Never had that problem in the Bahamas.
Underachievers: The Netherlands squad of Eva Hovenkamp, Lisanne de Witte, Femke Bol, and Lieke Klaver, three of whom had helped their country win the 4 by 400 at the 2021 European Indoors, could only finish fourth.
Unluckiest athlete: James Williams who was tripped as he was about to pass the baton so ending GB’s chances of making the final. Williams, a full-time Maths teacher, ran the heat and final of the 400 at the European Indoors this year. Between the races, we understand that he taught a Maths lesson for his school back in England by Zoom!
Time will tell
Covid: Holding an event at the moment involves a risk. The European Indoors in Poland in March seemed to have been well organized but reportedly 40+ athletes caught Covid and loads more had to quarantine on return home
Photos
© Krzysztof Wesołowski / World Athletics Relays Silesia 21
© Dan Vernon for World Athletics
