The Mixed Relay- mixed reactions
Relays are always exciting! Our sport is an individual sport except for relays, when athletes combine to run for their club, college, or country. The relatively new mixed relay is even more exciting because of the different speeds of men and women. Indoor relays take the level of excitement/potential disaster up a level. At the World Championships, six teams ran around tight bends trying to exchange the baton in a confined space. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that it is an accident waiting to happen!
Originally, the running order was at the teams’ discretion, but at the world championship in Torun, it was set to man, woman, man, woman. The rules regarding dropped batons had been changed, giving teams more scope to recover after a mishap during a baton change. To the disappointment of the BBC TV commentators, the new rules did not allow the baton to be thrown from athlete to athlete. The event was a straight final with 6 teams.
The first change, at the end of the second lap with all the teams more or less in a line with flustered officials trying to get them in the right order in a confined space at the changeover point, was always going to be tricky. Jamaica’s Delano Kennedy approached the changeover zone in lane one. Unfortunately, his teammate Shana Kaye Anderson was (correctly) in lane 2. As Kennedy stretched across, the American leg 2 runner, Sara Reifenrath, had to take evasive action and, in so doing, was clipped by another athlete and took a nasty tumble. Reifenrath bravely picked herself up and set off, but the USA had lost about 3 seconds and was effectively out of the race.
Belgium finished first, Spain second, and Jamaica third. Then, Jamaica was disqualified for causing the American trip, which upgraded Poland from fourth to third. The home crowd loved the upgrade. The correct outcome, but it didn’t help the Americans who would almost certainly have been in the medals but for the fall.
Helena Ponette, the Belgian anchor leg, commented: “I was very nervous watching what was happening at the baton exchanges. In the end, I was very happy to get the baton first and to finish the race the same way. We are all very pleased with this gold.”
Stop Press: RunBlogRun understands that a protest has been lodged that the Belgian team did not include a member of the Borlee family. We are sure that the rules say that all Belgian relays must include a Borlee.
