Jamaica could have won the Men’s 4x100M at the World Relays

Photo: Javon Francis ran two blistering anchor legs for Jamaica in the Men’s 4x400m at the World Relays in the Bahamas.

Yardie Sports wants to congratulate the athletes for their performances at the second staging of the recently held World Relays.

Most die hearted Jamaican track and field fans was not really satisfied with how some of the relays went in Nassau, Bahamas. The first disappointment was the withdrawal of the University of Technology athletes and it cost the nation to not have its national anthem played more than two times at the games.

The likes of Elaine Thompson, the fastest Jamaican female over 100 meters this year, was one of the athletes that did not make the trip.  Its a joy for track and field fans here in Jamaica to beat rivals United States of America and to hear the National Anthem being played.

On the first evening, when the Men’s 4×100 relay final ran, the nation was not pleased as they saw the USA finish in front of Jamaica to end their  seven year drought of winning the 4×100 relay for men. Jamaican could have won the relay if a different strategy was used. Though we did not have our strongest athletes to represent us, we had a good core that could have taken the gold medal at the World Relays.

We must accept that none of who we brought to represent us was in any form as the American Justin Gatlin but we had Usain Bolt who is known to find his shape and form when it comes to championships. Kemar Bailey-Cole was the wrong choice to run on the second leg that Galin was on. Bailey-Cole, who is not in any shape to even rub shoulders with Gatlin at the moment and was left by some distance on that second leg.

Usain Bolt ran the fastest split time in a relay in the race which means he did find form at the World Relays. Had Usain Bolt ran on the second leg with Gatlin, Jamaica could have won the gold medal. Nesta Carter gave the team a good start but before the race I have predicted Gatlin to win the race for the Americans if Bolt did not run on his leg.

Nickel Ashmeade also ran a great third leg against Tyson Gay. This is a great lesson for Jamaica though, that Usain Bolt doesn’t need to anchor for us to win, he can do the damage from early to give us the advantage instead of running the glory, anchor leg.

We must note that Justin Gatlin could have also anchored the United States but that was not the best strategy. The Amercians knew they had to let Gatlin run on a leg that he would give them the advantage and that was the difference on the day.

We won the 4×100 for women without our out double Olympic and World champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and young sprint sensation Elaine Thompson which signals our strength in that event.

We won the the 4×200 for men without Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt, our two fastest men over 200 metres, which again show our talent in that event.

We came second behind USA in the 4×200 for women but again we were without our strongest team with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson absent. It was a good performance nonetheless.

We take the silver medal in the 4×400 meters for women behind the big favourites USA with the Jamaican born Olympic and World champion Sanya Richards in their team.

We came 4th in the 4×400 meters for men, we were again with out our best athletes. Akeem Bloomfield who is the fastest Jamaican over 400 meters this year was absent along with Nathon Allen who picked up an injury in the heats. It was an outstanding performance from Javon “Donkey man” Francis at the relays, like he did in Moscow, Russia two years ago, he have won the hearts of track and field fans once more with two fantastic relay legs.