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Final-Handoff Drops Doom 2 U.S. Relays

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By EDDIE PELLS The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 22, 2008

BEIJING - Tyson Gay reached back to grab the baton "and there was nothing."

He's not the only American track favorite who will leave Beijing empty-handed.

The American men's and women's 400-meter relay teams both misconnected on the final handoffs in their preliminaries Thursday, a pair of stunning setbacks that made it that much easier for the Jamaicans to say the Bird's Nest is really their house.

Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown ran the fastest women's 200 in a decade to beat American Allyson Felix and complete her country's sweep of the four men's and women's sprint races, the first sweep since the United States did it in 1988. And with the Americans out of the mix in the relays, there could be even more gold in store for Usain Bolt and the rest of the Jamaican team.

"I think this Olympics is the Jamaican Olympics, no disrespect to the Americans," said Kerron Stewart, the Jamaican who finished third in the 200. "Dominating like we are, it's no surprise. I know it's been crazy because we've been on the podium a lot."

With the relays gone, this will be the first time the U.S. has gone 0-for-6 in Olympic sprints.

Not that it was a totally disappointing day for the Stars and Stripes.

LaShawn Merritt led a U.S. sweep in the men's 400 - the second American sweep of the track meet. But even that had a strange twist. The guy he beat, Jeremy Wariner, was the defending world and Olympic champion and the favorite. Wariner lost the race by almost a full second, laboring down the stretch to hold off David Neville, who dove across the finish line.

"I didn't have anything left," Wariner said. "I don't know what to say. I ran the best I could."

Americans David Payne and David Oliver picked up silver and bronze medals in the 110-meter hurdles, won by Cuba's Dayron Robles, whose path became clearer when Liu Xiang of China pulled out with a foot injury earlier in the week.

Gay also came in with health problems - the hamstring he strained at Olympic trials last month - but he ran. He didn't make it out of the semifinals of the men's 100 meters, though, and after the botched handoff in the relay, he'll leave not only without a medal but without having run in a final.

"I take full blame for it," Gay said of his bad exchange with David Patton. "I kind of feel I let them down."

The women were also in good shape heading into the final exchange, but Lauryn Williams didn't receive the baton from Torri Edwards. Williams went back to retrieve it and finished the race - but the Americans were dead last.

Williams will go down as the American involved in not one but two faulty Olympic exchanges that cost her team a chance at a medal. In 2004, she misconnected with Marion Jones in the final and the U.S. was disqualified for making the exchange outside the 20-meter handoff zone.

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