INAUGURAL WORLD RELAYS A SUCCESS

No Bolt, no Gatlin, no Gay, no Jeter, no Felix, no Veronica Campbell Brown, no problem! The inaugural IAAF World Relay Championships in the Bahamas was a success! A huge one too, if you ask me. There were world records, there was drama, and last but not least there was atmosphere.

From the moments the athletes began to arrive in the Bahamas, you could tell they were having a good time. One-lap relay gold medalist Julian Forte posted on his Facebook page, “Woke up to paradise”;   two-lap relay gold medalist and world record holder Warren Weir posted pictures of himself jetskiing; it was the perfect advert for what the Bahamas represents to the outside world.

On the track there were world records and drama. For 20 years the Santa Monica Track Club held on tight to the coveted 4×200-relay record of 1:18.68s. It was an easy hold too, because the relay is rarely run and the quality of the record was very high. Carl Lewis, Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell and Joe DeLoach were among the very best of their era, all sub-20 200-metre sprinters. Twenty years on however, that record became very ‘gettable”.  The only ‘surprise’ so to speak was that Jamaica with Nickel Ashmeade, Warren Weir, relative unknown Jermaine Brown and Yohan Blake did it so easily. They shaved 0.05 seconds off the time set by the Americans two decades ago and came courtesy a blistering 19-second anchor leg by the second fastest man in history.

One wonders what the record would have been had the fastest man in history been able to participate. We eagerly anticipate next year’s renewal and hope that all of Jamaica’s 200-metre stars are healthy and in shape.

The disappointment was that there was no USA to contest the final as once again they messed up their baton exchanges and rendered the outcome anti-climactic. Since 2008 when Jamaica began its dominance of the short sprints in track and field, the USA men have been like a drug addict in the early stages of withdrawal. They just cant seem to stop shaking.

We saw it in the 4x200m and we saw it in the 4x100m. On neither occasion did the US pose a threat to the eventual winners, Jamaica. In the meantime, Blake cleaned up again and piloted Jamaica home with another blistering anchor leg. I only wonder why the coaches did not persist with Kemar Bailey-Cole in the final after he ran a very strong leg along the back stretch in the heats. The 37.72s ran in the heats was 0.05s faster than what was run in the final and my initial impression was that the backstretch run was not as impressive in the finals. That aside, Jamaica on the men’s side delivered.

On the women’s side however, things were a little less satisfying. Two bad handovers in the final cost Jamaica a possible win in the 4x100m. It did not matter that Shelly Ann Frazer-Pryce was not available because Samantha Henry-Robinson is the fastest Jamaican woman in the world this year and deserved to be on anchor. However, perhaps it was lack of experience at this level or perhaps a lack of confidence that saw two botched exchanges that eventually gave the USA all the advantage it needed to take the title, one of four their women claimed.

Their 4×4 team won as expected but not before a strong early fight from Jamaica, who kept pace with their powerful team before Natasha Hastings demonstrated their greater depth by fighting off a valiant challenge from Anastasia Leroy to give the Americans the edge and eventually the win. Shericka Jackson with another good leg of 51.2 (unofficially) was never going to challenge Jessica Beard and so finally diffused the Jamaican challenge. One only wonders what the outcome could have been had Stephanie McPherson been available. I could not write this however, without singling out the monster leg from Novelene Williams Mills, who delivered a massive 49.6s split as she battled Sanya Richards-Ross and  handed off simultaneously at the end of the second leg and keeping Jamaica in the hunt for gold as long as it did.

The men’s 4×4 delivered great excitement and a keen contest between the USA, Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago. It took the exceptional class of LeShawn Merritt and a blistering 43.6 anchor leg to settle the matter decisively in the end but for a long time it looked like the Bahamas were going to pull a repeat performance of their showing at the Olympics in London two years ago when they surprised the all-powerful Americans to steal the gold medal.

Jamaica’s runners in the meantime, added drama to the event when the first-leg runner chose to play tug-of-war with the baton with the outgoing runner. In the end the baton fell and effectively ended Jamaica’s campaign for a medal position. In hindsight, the effort may have fallen well short as Trinidad who finished third looked way too strong for the Jamaican quartet. There is still work to be done to catch up to the rest of the world in the mile relay but I believe we are close.

The middle distance relays provided world records too and a surprise of sorts. In the 4x800m the American quartet of Chanele Price, Geena Lara, Ajee Wilson and Brenda Martinez led from pillar to post in taking the event convincingly over favourites Kenya who did not under perform as they set a new national record of 8:04.28 but they were nowhere close to the Americans’ 8:01.58. Jamaica were well back 17 seconds off the winning time but they did set a new national record of which they can be proud. It tells us that we have a lot of work to do to even get on par with the world in the half-mile event.

The Kenyans did get their world records though. In the 4x1500m they blew the doors of their existing record to set a new mark of 16:33.58. Their men followed suit with a blistering performance 14:22.22 to win by 18 seconds over a gallant American quartet and Ethiopia.

In the end the USA won the very first Golden Baton with 60 points. I should explain here that each win earns the winning team eight points, with seven for second, six for third and so on. Jamaica was second with 41, and Kenya third with 35 points. The Americans dominated with five wins. Kenya had three while the Jamaicans snared two titles each country demonstrating why they are the powerhouses in the sport.

The Bahamas must also be commended for the way in which they handled the medal ceremonies. Literally seconds after each event bouquets and cheques were handed out and national anthems played ensuring that the moment was not lost on the winners. It is something the Olympic games and World Championships organizers should consider copying.

One gets the sense that the organizers learned a lot from their experience hosting the CARIFTA Games last year when many mistakes were made but it was nice to see that the lessons were learned and learned well so kudos to the Bahamas that made these games so memorable.

They made it so that you almost didn’t want it to end, a sentiment expressed by USA’s 4x400m gold medal winner DeeDee Trotter who tweeted “I dont want to go home”. It was a sentiment I believed that was shared by all.