When the holding gets tough

As expected, the Jamaicans are in the finals of the 4x100m relays. Both the men and the women. And they look good for the gold, barring any mishandling of the baton. Like what happened to the U.S. The Americans found out that they just couldn't handle the baton properly, the hard way.

First, the men dropped the baton. Tyson Gay just couldn't connect with Darvis Patton and he ended up empty handed. Tyson Gay will now leave Beijing without running in a final. He failed to qualify for the 100m finals a few days back. Then the women followed suit. Lauryn Williams now has two Olympic baton drops on her resume. She and Marion Jones had a slip-up in the 2004 Olympics, a blunder that cost the U.S. a gold medal. Not that it mattered though, since if they did win the gold, it would have been stripped anyway because of Marion Jones involvement with a certain drug.

It must be heartbreak for the Americans, who see themselves as favourites to win the sprint events. Instead, they keep falling short of expectations. For the first time in Summer Games history, the U.S. will leave an Olympics 0-for-6 in the sprint races: the men’s and women’s 100s, 200s and 4x100 relays.

Now Jamaica has the chance of emulating the 1984 U.S. sprint team, which went 6-for-6 in the Olympic sprint races.

Ops! I think I drop something!

You're supposed to hold it, not drop it!