Forget this mixed BS... how about adding 4x800 and DMR?
As new events for the Olympic program...
4x800 is too boring.
DMR is a ridiculous fake event, with no world records kept (for good reason). Part of the joke is the meaningless second-of-four leg that makes up only 10% of the race distance and never impacts anything. No true elite 400m runner would waster their time on this garbage.
This is a stupid post. DMR, like the 2-2-4-8 SMR, is a cool event because it gives fan across the spectrum something to care about. The 400 leg is definitely important, handing off from a 1200 to a 400 and even the 4 to the 8 takes skill and practice, so the event rewards the relay team for actually being a team, not dropping batons like Americans. If you’re a top 10 ish 400 athlete in your country and you’re not running open, 4x4, or mixed, then hop in the dmr. Sure Warholm won’t be running it, but you’ll get some pretty good 400 guys in there. 1200 is a unique distance you don’t see anywhere else and has a cool tactical aspect. Take the 800 guy with a solid 1k and maybe some distance background or a 1500 guy with a decent 8 time?
yes because there isn't much significance to time differences between 100 and 400...
There's a gigantic difference. For a 100m, a guy will be barreling in at ~8.5s/100m pace, but for a 400m, those dudes are coming in at ~12s/100m pace. The fastest last 100m I can find is 11.2 by Butch Reynolds.
Forget this mixed BS... how about adding 4x800 and DMR?
No.
T&F doesn't need anymore reason to turn away the very few people who watch it anyways and these events would not gain any new fans. Sorry LRC dudes.... distance running is already the most boring sport on TV among the general public and even among those who actually already watch it. Everything above the mile is a snooze fest. Watching LRC wankers go bonkers over 23 laps at 62 seconds per followed by a couple 57 second laps is not more exciting than watching curling.
The difference in speed between men and women would make the exchanges problematic
Which would be equally problematic for all teams leading to more chaos, and that potential for chaos is the only interesting thing about mixed relays.
They've already done mixed 4x100s and the handoffs aren't a problem at all. Here was one with Usain Bolt on it. That's Usain Bolt handing off to Jenna Prandini in the second exchange btw. It probably does make sense to run the men first followed by the women, otherwise the men would have to start off slower to allow the women to catch up to them in the exchange zone, but even that's pretty easy to practice. High school coaches deal with this stuff all the time, it's not uncommon to have one really fast kid on a high school relay with 3 pretty average kids.
Watch more of the best pro races here: https://bit.ly/2CEiymlFlashback to the 2017 Nitro Athletics: Melbourne mixed 4x100m where Usain Bolt and the Bolt All-...
Forget this mixed BS... how about adding 4x800 and DMR?
No.
T&F doesn't need anymore reason to turn away the very few people who watch it anyways and these events would not gain any new fans. Sorry LRC dudes.... distance running is already the most boring sport on TV among the general public and even among those who actually already watch it. Everything above the mile is a snooze fest. Watching LRC wankers go bonkers over 23 laps at 62 seconds per followed by a couple 57 second laps is not more exciting than watching curling.
Wanker? You’re the wanker. You probably love to watch cricket.
DMR is a ridiculous fake event, with no world records kept (for good reason). Part of the joke is the meaningless second-of-four leg that makes up only 10% of the race distance and never impacts anything. No true elite 400m runner would waster their time on this garbage.
This is a stupid post. DMR, like the 2-2-4-8 SMR, is a cool event because it gives fan across the spectrum something to care about. The 400 leg is definitely important, handing off from a 1200 to a 400 and even the 4 to the 8 takes skill and practice, so the event rewards the relay team for actually being a team, not dropping batons like Americans. If you’re a top 10 ish 400 athlete in your country and you’re not running open, 4x4, or mixed, then hop in the dmr. Sure Warholm won’t be running it, but you’ll get some pretty good 400 guys in there. 1200 is a unique distance you don’t see anywhere else and has a cool tactical aspect. Take the 800 guy with a solid 1k and maybe some distance background or a 1500 guy with a decent 8 time?
way more fun event than the 4x8 any day
Medley relays are the worst, the DMR might be the least worse option but relays like the 2-2-4-8 are terrible. We just witnessed Washington break the women's NCAA DMR record with frankly a very mediocre 400 meter leg, in all these medley relays the short legs matter hardly at all. Consider that in a race like the 2-2-4-8 the 800 meter leg ends up being 55% of the total race time, that's barely a relay at all. High school coaches love stupid events like that because they can put 3 chumps on the first 3 legs and one stud on the anchor and score some points. The 1-1-2-4 isn't any better. No one is asking for this crap at the elite level, we're still trying to get rid of it at the high school level.
I like the idea of the mixed relays, but you just get diluted teams in the current set up. The world record holder team doesn't even have a single person on it who could make an olympic 400m final
Justin Robinson (M) 44.47 pb ,
Rosey Effiong (F) 50+ pb,
Matthew Boling (M) 45+ pb,
Alexis Holmes (F) 50+ pb
A better idea. There is no qualification rounds - straight to final. You qualify by winning last year or running fast during the year. There should be a rule that at least two athletes on the team must be entered in individual events. We can't have this event be a bunch of rejects who wouldn't make the team otherwise. Getting rid of the prelims will help.