Rio Olympics: U.S. women’s 4x100 relay team grabs second chance
United States' Tianna Bartoletta hugs her teammate Allyson Felix, right, as United States' Morolake Akinosun, left, looks on after a women's 4x100-meter relay after the U.S. team dropped the baton in the morning race during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016. Credit: AP / Matt Slocum
RIO DE JANEIRO — The U.S. team made the most of its second chance to qualify for the women’s 4x100-meter relay final, recording the fastest time of the day in a solo re-run before the night session began.
The Americans dropped the baton during the morning preliminaries and appeared to be out of contention.
But track officials upheld the U.S. protest because Allyson Felix was jostled as she tried to hand the baton over to English Gardner.
Because relay finals must be limited to eight teams, the Americans were called back to run all by themselves, in the same order and in the same lane.
Their goal was to beat the time of 42.70 seconds run by China. They posted a time of 41.77, almost a second faster than the target and narrowly in front of Jamaica, the fastest of the automatic qualifiers in 41.79.
Their time marked the second-fastest 4x100 in the world this season. The fastest time this year was Germany’s 41.62 in July.
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