It was like sports day at the local primary school. All that the runners had to do was a quarter of a lap each, and pass a baton between runners as they did it. But it proved far too difficult for an incredible number of countries.
What am I talking about? The Men's and Women's 4x100m relays, of course. Today was semifinals day, and some teams that should have been contesting medals in the finals will not be there due to gross incompetence.
In the Men's races a total of four teams from the two races dropped the baton, including the US team, and two teams were disqualified for passing the baton out of the box. Unfortunately one of these teams was the GB team who were the defending Olympic champions. Truth to tell they had no chance of repeating that feat if the Jamaicans manage to pass the baton safely in the final, but it would have been nice to be there to try for a silver or bronze medal.
The Women's semifinals weren't quite so bad. Two teams dropped the baton, France and Trinidad and Tobago. Three teams were disqualified, and one of those was again the team from the US. Can you believe it? No US teams in the 4x100m finals. But one has to say that Jamaica have to be favourites for the Women's gold medal and again if they manage to pass the baton safely in the final, the gold will be theirs. The one ray of sunshine for Team GB is that our Women's team qualified easily, and could well be there in the hunt for silver and bronze come the final.
If someone told you what had happened, and there was no video footage to prove it, you wouldn't believe it possible. But there is, so you can see it for yourselves. It was a real shambles!
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