Had we failed to advance it would have been all on him, and that would be a terrible weight to bear for anyone, let alone a high school kid.
Whenever we see a high school phenom, I always think of Obea Moore. How do we help promote the phenoms' long term success?
If USA would have failed to make it to the final on that leg, that could crush a kid. Hell, it could crush an adult. This could have become a moment that turns this phenom's trajectory. I really hope it doesn't.
Quincy's 47.27 on the opening leg made him 14th out of 15 opening legs in the round. People crushed Michael Norman for his performance in the 400 finals. Today Michael Norman's awful performance would have crushed Quincy.
Hall and Benjamin in the finals will drop easily 4-5 seconds. WR on watch?
World record watch would definitely be on, but I wouldn't bet on it happening. Bailey/Norwood would have to run what they did in the prelims and Hall/Rai would have to be in low 43s. No question it's possible, but asking for Norwood to replicate his performance, questions about Hall's health, Rai running a day after the 400m hurdles final, feels that at least one thing could go wrong.
Had we failed to advance it would have been all on him, and that would be a terrible weight to bear for anyone, let alone a high school kid.
Which is why he shouldn't have been put in that situation. But all you guys (on the other thread) insisted on his getting a leg. If one more guy had an off-day there would have been no final and this kid (because you are all in a hurry to get this phenom some experience) would have been emotionally devastated (probably needing psychiatric help). Regardless if they win the race tomorrow, this was an avoidable negative experience for this kid.
I blame Marsh and his HS coach for listening to you nimrods and risking his future. If anything he should be in Peru in a couple of weeks to compete at World U20, where he could get a USA vest and likely win an individual gold medal.
I feel bad for the kid, but age 16 at the Olympics? Pretty tough first international meet.
Norwood doesn't get enough love. He's so reliable, always runs a good leg. And I can't wait to see what Rai can do.
Norwood is great. I was cheering so hard for him at USAs, and was bummed when he was 4th, after being 4th in the world last year. He's always just right there. Solid, consistent performer.
You have to get experience at some point. Now he has gotten experience.
The team made it through. They have 3 good guys to swap in for the final. It's all working out.
I disagree. He does need to get experience at some point but there are less risky ways to do it. There is much discretion who to put there and he put us half a straight away behind. The other 3 ran perfectly patient -well run 400s to eat into a gigantic lead. We were lucky to qualify!
You have to get experience at some point. Now he has gotten experience.
The team made it through. They have 3 good guys to swap in for the final. It's all working out.
I disagree. He does need to get experience at some point but there are less risky ways to do it. There is much discretion who to put there and he put us half a straight away behind. The other 3 ran perfectly patient -well run 400s to eat into a gigantic lead. We were lucky to qualify!
I don't blame him for running. It was just very high risk selection to even get to finals at all.
47. split for 16 year old shows he wasn't ready. Let’s hope finals are better.
He sat around the village for almost 3 weeks with no race on the horizon until the about 36 hours ago. Of course he wasn’t ready. Also not really his fault, they should have run him on the mixed relay prelim and that should have been it.!
Yeah, that’s a good point. No one should blame him. I mean, I don’t even like to think of how I would’ve been at the age of 16 at an Olympics.
Especially with hindsight, I would not have run a young guy lead-off with no experience on a 3-turn stagger at this level. That also did very little to provide him experience for the future. I would have run him in a middle leg so that he could compete and get drug along by others.
If Botswana is within touching distance on the last leg handing off to Tebogo - USA will be in shock when Rai gets run down.
Tebogo ran the first leg in the heats. I don't think you take your 100/200 guy out of the blocks. This race won't be close once you have a 44.x opening leg for usa instead of a 47.x. Why is tebogo running anchor in your scenario?
just saw that Tebogo only ran in the heats because Scotch (the original lead leg) got injured and Tebogo happened to be there
Especially with hindsight, I would not have run a young guy lead-off with no experience on a 3-turn stagger at this level. That also did very little to provide him experience for the future. I would have run him in a middle leg so that he could compete and get drug along by others.
Yes that’s a really good point. Well, I would suggest that the experience will make him hungry, and that’s good. He’s incredibly talented and no reason he can’t be on the pro circuit soon if he chooses to.
Especially with hindsight, I would not have run a young guy lead-off with no experience on a 3-turn stagger at this level. That also did very little to provide him experience for the future. I would have run him in a middle leg so that he could compete and get drug along by others.
Yes that’s a really good point. Well, I would suggest that the experience will make him hungry, and that’s good. He’s incredibly talented and no reason he can’t be on the pro circuit soon if he chooses to.
Has he even run 3 turn stagger lead-off before? I can't imagine that he has run anything but anchor at the HS level. At an Olympic level, lead-off takes a lot of self-awareness and patience.
Especially with hindsight, I would not have run a young guy lead-off with no experience on a 3-turn stagger at this level. That also did very little to provide him experience for the future. I would have run him in a middle leg so that he could compete and get drug along by others.
I would have run him first, if he screws up they have 3 legs to catch up
i was a 4x4 guy in college/high school and the inexperienced guys often did leg 1
Especially with hindsight, I would not have run a young guy lead-off with no experience on a 3-turn stagger at this level. That also did very little to provide him experience for the future. I would have run him in a middle leg so that he could compete and get drug along by others.
I would have run him first, if he screws up they have 3 legs to catch up
i was a 4x4 guy in college/high school and the inexperienced guys often did leg 1
I understand your point. I was an 800/1500 guy and preferred lead-off.
Had a 44 low guy run second leg, would there even have been a chance of a screw up?