One of the most exciting races at the Penn Relays was the men's
USA vs. the World 4x400. The Bahamas (with
Mike Sands in attendance) had the same four runners from their 2012 Olympic gold medal team while the American quartet featured 3 members from their IAAF Indoor World Championship and world record team.
The Bahamas held the lead through the first two legs before American
David Verburg split a 44.5 on the third lap to draw even with
Chris Brown of the Bahamas. Apparently the
Race Marshall thought Verburg had taken the lead outright and rearranged the handoff position of the anchor legs.
Manteo Mitchell of the USA was given pole with the Bahamian anchor behind him. Despite the fact that their teammates were coming down the homestretch in the opposite order. Chaos ensured as they reached the exchange zone dead even. Mitchell went for a no-look pass in order to gain an advantage and grabbed the first baton that touched his hand.....
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| Whose baton is it? |
Mitchell realizing he has the wrong stick in his hand has to come to a dead stop and take the hand off from Verburg. Who, at this point, is on the verge of face planting. This gave the Bahamas
Ramon Miller enough of a lead and eliminated any chance for a climatic final lap and a USA sweep of the international relays. Lucky for the Americans, they get a shot a redemption with the
IAAF World Relays in a little a month. Looks like we a second relay rivalry to go along with USA vs. Jamaica in the 4x100. Which, by the way, the Americans won that race by
.01 of a second.
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Three hands on the same baton!
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A good interview. He takes the blame like a good soldier but says "It won't happen again." Pretty forceful. I'm impressed.
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