Dropped it. 
Edit - not a drop, Shaun was run over by the lead runner. Donāt know what happened there.
Will have to watch a replay, could not tell what happened. Disappointing.
Then we suck it up in the relay again. Terrible passes. Got beat by freaking Ghana!
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NY Post: Carl Lewis slams relay fail
āWeāve been talking about this forever. The relay program has been a disaster for years because thereās no leadership and no system. When I said everything is wrong, it is. If you break it down, people were in the wrong legs, obviously, they were not taught how to pass the baton in those legs. Just simple things like that. I watched it. Iām not blaming the athletes so much. This was leadership,ā Lewis said.
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Apparently SA handoff confusion caused by change in personnelā¦
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I like Carl and I am super happy we have him as a coach, but things like this are why a lot of people in the track community donāt really like him. We (the US) have become a joke in the relay, but every time he goes on a rant about it. Same thing with the long jump. He is 100% right, but its not the correct way to do this. Now we (UH) have also blown two years with our relay. When he came on as an assistant he said it was because he wanted to put American athletes in the Olympics in the sprints and long jump. He needs to keep focusing on that and getting our relay teams back on top. If he goes out next season, gets our 4x100 team back to being champs and makes Shaun a champ in the long jump, then USA track will be calling and begging him for help.
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This plus the issue with South Africaās exchange (or lack thereof) had me thinking that Carl Lewis is not the right one to be screaming about this right now. Heās right, butā¦
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Carl Lewis is the LAST person to be complaining about the US teamās performance after the UH performances at the NCAAs. Fix your own house before pointing the finger at your neighbor. And the US team coaches donāt have a year to work with the team.
You should read the whole article.
I say that, but maybe there are different versions. The version I read was at USA Today.
Lewis pointed out many of the specific flaws. And they made perfect sense.
Look, batons get dropped. Athletes donāt always execute.
What he complained about were fundamental things that werenāt addressed or practicedāguys running the turn who have no experience doing it, handoffs going to the wrong side, etc.
The participants admitted that they basically had no practice. How do you expect to win when you consider the race an afterthought? Thatās what heās complaining about.
And heās got every right to point that out.
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But Carl never worked with the other athletes on South Africa. And Shawn is probably, what 19 years old or so?
I watched his Instagram live (well at least the first 15-20 mins), he mainly kept saying there needs to be a better system, but really didnāt go into much detail. Biggest thing he pointed out was that guys werenāt used to running the legs they ran. The problem is that all 4 guys are used to being on anchor. He talked about Kerley was the anchor at A&M for multiple seasons. I thought he would have complained about Baker (pretty much only a 100m guy) running the curve, but he said that was not as issue. I almost felt like he backtracked on his rant and really just wants the team to practice more and practice different legs/exchanges more so they can be interchangeable.
Even with the terrible 2nd exchange, we had the baton in qualifying position for the anchor. Was Gillespie not in top form because he was only on the relay?
Another huge negative, the US men have not won a gold medal in track this year. Only the 1500 (Hocker has a shot), marathon (long shot for Rupp), and 4x400 (favorites). Very likely no individual golds in track and only the one in field (Crouser - shot put).