Well that was fantastic to watch. Looking at 3rd/4th it appears anchoring male was the way to go (thought it depends on talent obviously)
Well that was fantastic to watch. Looking at 3rd/4th it appears anchoring male was the way to go (thought it depends on talent obviously)
rojo wrote:
The mixed relay was AWESOME fun but man the camera work was awful. The crowd was going nuts at the hometown team beat Team USA.
But it was man vs. women on legs 3 and 4 so the lead changed big time twice.
That was really, really cool. Great decision for them to make it the final event. The crowd was insane.
The USA 4x200 teams had some brutal handoffs. Both on the men's and women's side. De Grasse and the American runner came into the zone at the same time. The outgoing American runner took off late. It looked like the incoming runner went to switch hands at the handoff and then went back and further delayed the handoff. The anchor leg was decided in the exchange.
The USA women's 4x200 team had a curious exchange. On one exchange the outgoing runner took two timid steps and turned. The baton lost all momentum. I couldn't see enough of the exchanges to comment on the other ones but they were probably similar. Oregon's 4x200 team would have blown any of the competing teams away.
FitzyXC wrote:
Well that was fantastic to watch. Looking at 3rd/4th it appears anchoring male was the way to go (thought it depends on talent obviously)
No it doesn't depend on 'talent,' having a male anchor was the smart move regardless.
Looked like she caught a spike.
Speaker of Hard Truths wrote:
No it doesn't depend on 'talent,' having a male anchor was the smart move regardless.
The teams with the 2 fastest males/2 females will be there in the end. The Bahamas don't win without having probably (at least according to current form) the fastest male and fastest female in the race. Giving a male anchor something to chase might help their performance, but they aren't in a position to win without the early lead.
If everyone can run the same time without seeing anyone (van Niekerk style) then it's best to order your team fastest-to-slowest so that none of your runners ever has to expend energy or run extra distance passing people. Imagine if a top team had run a woman leadoff and man second. He would have had to run his whole leg in lane 2 slowing down their overall race.
Now of course competition matters and it helps being able to se smeone and reel them in. So especially if the race is not too deep and is spread out, a different strategy might be better.
early season results
7:18.11 Florida Florida Relays 04/01
7:18.70 Penn State Florida Relays 04/01