by Stuart Weir
Maroussia Pare leads upset for France in 4x200m, photo by Roger Sedres, IAAF
Well, if you think the 4x100m, 4x400m were exciting, you need to read about the 4x200m! Stuart Weir wrote this fine piece.
200 Meter relays
We are familiar with sprint relays when baton changes have the slickness of a Formula 1 pit stop – well most of the time, apart from when athletes show that they’re only human and mess it up. Then there are the quarter mile relay changeovers where athletes are running but not sprinting. The 200 meter relay is “neither fish nor fowl*, an event that athletes rarely run. I am reminded of the European team competition in 2015 when a British sprinter was injured in warm up and had to be replaced by a quarter-miler. The quarter-miler had no idea how fast a sprinter would approach her and she did not move quickly enough resulting in the incoming athlete clattering straight into her.
Rerrmontay McLain anchors USA 4x200m relay, photo by Roger Sedres
The men’s final was won by USA in 1:20.12 from South Africa and Germany. The South Africans set a continent record and the Germans a national record. It would be churlish to ask how many times African or German teams have run a 4 by 200 relay! In fact the existing African record had been set by the same South African team in the heats a couple of hours earlier.
Christopher Belcher, who led the USA off commented: “It’s still practice for us and run in live”. Can’t help thinking something was lost in translation! Simon Magakwe, the South African lead-off runner said: “It was great to break the area record again. It’s a great honor. We are all united very well. I think that was the key for this record”. Maurice Huke, for the third place Germans commented: “Perfect! Amazing and fantastic. We have great support by a team including medical”. His reference to the medical support takes us back to Formula 1. Good that the Germans had a medical staff ready for any carnage at the changeovers.
Maroussia Pere anchors France to their 4x200m upset win, photo by Roger Sedres, IAAF
France won the women’s 4 by 200 from China with Jamaica third – but only because USA were again disqualified. France won but only after what Bob Ramsak eloquently called “a slew of sloppy exchanges behind them”. The Jamaicans seemed to be practicing their dance moves with a quick, quick, slow approach. With the Olympic champion Elaine Thompson out first, Jamaica were the early leaders until Thompson’s hand over to Stephenie Ann McPherson brought both ladies almost to a standstill. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce took the baton from McPherson and was making up ground steadily until a disastrous hand-over to Shericka Jackson set them back again. It’s a tribute to the speed of Thompson, Fraser-Pryce and the others that despite losing so much time they still managed to finish fourth, upgraded to third.
Maroussia Paré, for the victorious French commented: “We are very happy. We didn’t expect this because we ran with big teams like Jamaica and USA. The atmosphere was great and they helped us to focus and be calm”. Afterwards Fraser-Pryce fronted up, saying poor baton exchanges was the reason we didn’t finish better”.
I’m pleased to inform you that there was no mixed 2 by 200 meter relay.
*A quaint expression which the dictionary defines as “of indefinite character and difficult to identify or classify”.
