The United States team from left, Allyson Felix, English Gardner, Tianna Bartoletta and Tori Bowie celebrate winning the gold medal in the women’s 4×100-meter relay final during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olym.
Advertisement
Players of the United States celebrate after the women’s 4X100m relay re-run at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 18, 2016. The tally could have been higher, too, had the USA men’s 4×100 team not been disqualified after placing third in the subsequent final.
Running by themselves in their own qualifying heat on Thursday night, the US posted the fastest overall time at 41.77 seconds to earn a spot in the finals while Brazil was disqualified.
Even with the fastest time, the USA goes into the final as a time qualifier, meaning an unfavourable lane, 1 or 8.
Felix is expected to return to the track Saturday at 9:00 p.m. ET for the 4x400m final.
So the Chinese are out of the final (as were the Brazilians, who were disqualified for obstruction on the bump that jostled Felix in the semifinal-which is why there were a decent amount of boos from the home crowd for the Americans on their re-run).
Earlier, the reigning Olympic champions dropped the baton during the second exchange between Felix and Gardner in the second heat. The U.S. women’s 4×100 team will take the position of either the first or eighth lane-considered by runners as the most tricky among the lanes. Anchor runner Morolake Akinosun finished but the Americans didn’t post an official time – listed as a “DQ”, until officials let them back in. In a slightly surreal scene, the USA women’s 4x100m team were granted a solo re-run after successfully protesting their disqualification in their heat earlier Thursday.
“The only pressure is to make sure we get the stick” around, said Asafa Powell, the former world-record holder who ran the third leg.
“I don’t think anything was missing and we ran the fastest qualifier”.
Advertisement
The U.S. women dropped the baton in both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics to give away potential medals in an event that was virtually made for the team with the deepest pool of sprinters.
