Spoiler alert: Women's 4x100 Relay

[VAMike23]

US Women Shatter the World Record [CBS Sports]

more coverage at ESPN

Just an UNBELIEVABLE performance! Perfection!! 40.82 seconds = A Race for the Ages, not even a smidgen of exaggeration. Monumental.

Folks, Ms. Felix, Jeter, Madison and Knight just DESTROYED the 27-year-old world record in this event--set way back in 1985 by East Germany (we remember those days)--by over half a second. I say again: Over half a second!! Mind boggling !!!!!!

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USA anchor Carmelita Jeter points to the WR time after a monumental race for Gold​

 

[VAMike23]

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[UCONNfan1]

Good for them. Must have been great to see live. Will see it tonite. Question - did they pick the top 4 racers (by time) in the US? wasn't that Jeneba Tarboh 4th on the US trials? I think she ran in the semifinal heat, but did they explain why Team USA chose the 4 women they ended up choosing? Just curious...

 

[UConnCat]

Wow. I watched one of the qualifying races and the announcer said that he'd never seen a US relay team exchange the baton as well as they did in that race. They must have repeated it in the finals!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Wow. Beating the Jamaicans is big. Breaking the record by that much is amazing. Well done!

 

[UConnChapette]

Wow. I watched one of the qualifying races and the announcer said that he'd never seen a US relay team exchange the baton as well as they did in that race. They must have repeated it in the finals!

The baton exchanges in the qualifier were a thing of beauty. Not a glance back by the receiving runner, and the passer placed it perfectly in the receivers hand. It is especially mind blowing because they really don't practice that much. If you haven't had to give/receive a hand off in a relay race you don't really have an appreciation for just how difficult it is with two runners going close to top speed, in a very limited amount of space, to have a clean hand off. As a former sprinter in the 4 X 100, 4 X 200 and 4 X 400 relays (a LONG time ago) I remember very well how difficult it was to execute flawlessly.

 

[VAUConnFan]

I love relays! The precision, the teamwork. Love it!

 

[Blakeon18]

The anchor pointing the baton at the clock as she finished was hopelessly cool.
Great job, ladies! Win the 4 by 400 today....they are holding their own [even more than that] against
the Jamaicans.

Saturday....the 4 by 1 on the guy-side coming up.

The good news: USA set an American record winning their heat.
Jamaica won their heat in 1/100th a second slower.

The bad news: Bolt didn't run for Jamaica...was resting for the finals.

Prediction: a great upset by the USA or they push Jamaica to a new world record.

 

[MilfordHusky]

The anchor pointing the baton at the clock as she finished was hopelessly cool.
Great job, ladies! Win the 4 by 400 today....they are holding their own [even more than that] against
the Jamaicans.

Saturday....the 4 by 1 on the guy-side coming up.

The good news: USA set an American record winning their heat.
Jamaica won their heat in 1/100th a second slower.

The bad news: Bolt didn't run for Jamaica...was resting for the finals.

Prediction: a great upset by the USA or they push Jamaica to a new world record.

My guess is a WR. We need to be better than them with the baton; they have unprecedented speed.

Carl Lewis is suspect of Bolt. Anyone on the board question his legitimacy?

 

[Blakeon18]

I don't....unless there is more than Carl rambling about it. Bolt hasn't run these times just once in a short timespan....he has done it consistently over the last 4 years....that would tend to
make possible drug use harder to conceal. Unless Lewis has more than speculation to offer, it makes him look bad not Bolt....imo.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I don't....unless there is more than Carl rambling about it. Bolt hasn't run these times just once in a short timespan....he has done it consistently over the last 4 years....that would tend to
make possible drug use harder to conceal. Unless Lewis has more than speculation to offer, it makes him look bad not Bolt....imo.

Bolt said he disrespects Lewis for those comments. I think Carl was talking about Bolt's improvement from 2006 or so to 2008. He was barely a 10.0 runner for a while. I have not seen any other claims, but the Jamaicans are very, very fast.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Spoiler alert:

The U.S. men tied the WR. It was not good enough, as Bolt ran (another) sensational actor leg.