Many of us as track fans have long run with the idea that the relay pool is made up of the top three finishers at National Trials along with the next best three; or top four if it’s the World Championships and we have a bye, plus the next best two—ergo, the top six. Indeed, that seems to have been the case for most seasons that I can remember. But that’s actually not how it works. Take a look at this screenshot from the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association’s selection policy on their website:
It seems pretty straightforward, but is it? What exactly does the second sentence in bullet 2 mean? The remaining members of the relay pool will be selected by the JAAA Selection Committee. Does it mean they can only select from the team members who have already qualified and been named to the squad? We’ve seen athletes brought in from other events to run a leg here and there, especially 400m hurdlers giving us a leg in the 4x400m relays. Or is it so wide open that they can select anybody at all from among the athletes who competed at the National Trials, even if that person never made the team but had attained the requisite qualifying standard or had been given a medical exemption at the time? Because the other athlete in question in Tyqendo’s case did not make the team but was reportedly still brought in, which I have never seen happen before. And Rusheen McDonald, who had an exemption, has run the fastest 400m time this year but he was not on the aforementioned mixed relay team, which definitely needed Jesus and could certainly have used him.
There’s still a storm brewing where Tyquendo’s issue is concerned, but just as the men’s team was sorted out with the top four men from Trials making the lineup, the women’s team selection took centrestage. We were all happy to see Elaine Thompson-Herah boss up the second leg in the heats yesterday with a blazing 9.90 seconds split and most of us fully expected her to be running in the finals—if not that leg, then on the third leg so she could take the curve, which is her specialty. We’ve also become so accustomed to Briana Williams’ bullet start at the top that we automatically expected her to continue as well. We all agreed (and I’m clearly taking liberties here by generalising) that Shashalee Forbes should be subbed out when Shericka Jackson, the 200m speed queen, came in for finals duties. But where did that leave Natasha Morrison who finished third at Trials? Was she not going to get the opportunity to run and be amongst the medals and the prize money?
Well, while we were already hanging the gold medals around the team members’ necks, we heard that neither Briana nor Elaine was running in the finals and people lost their minds. There were arguments for and against their inclusion, but the selection committee decided, as with the men, to go with the top finishers from Trials (in this case, top three along with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who had the bye as the defending champion from last year in Eugene). It’s a pretty solid team. Not our strongest or fastest, though, and definitely not as strong as the team from our perennial rivals from Ova Suh. Not with Sha’Carri Richardson riding high on the strength of a gold medal and champs record in the 100m and a bronze medal and personal best in the 200m. So, in the end, Dem People won in a new record and we “only” managed silver—which, to many Jamaicans in the post-2008 Olympics era, is tantamount to dead last. Shelly-Ann picked up a right knee muscle strain in the process, compounding the injury she’s already nursing. But does the average viewer care about that? Only peripherally, because all energy right now has gone into cussing about how we dash weh di gold.
But I beg to differ. In my estimation, we did not have that gold medal in the bag. In fact, we should be thanking God that we got anything at all because Shelly could have been unable to continue running. Even without Shelly getting hurt and even if Elaine and Briana had run, it was always going to be a tall task to beat the Americans. They have been practising for a while—had a whole camp and everything—and we know their team selectors don’t give two $#!+s about who finishes where at their trials. It’s all about the fastest and best four people on the appropriate legs, going out there to beat the world. Gabby Thomas didn’t even run the 100m at their trials! Also, kindly remember their lineup that set that blistering world record at the London 2012 Olympics. And you know how they’re able to determine who’s best for which leg and work out various combinations to account for potential injuries or changes in form? At relay camp. Which we don’t seem to care about.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was also upset about the team changes because I do believe Elaine would have made a great addition to the squad with Shelly and Shericka. But I also wanted Natasha to get a fair shot at a medal and the money too. So, who was right and what was the best decision? The fact of the matter is that we wanted “justice” in the men’s team selection but were perfectly fine with the same process not playing out for the women. The question now is, are we going to follow the rules as they are currently laid out or do we make amendments so the selectors have the leeway to choose the best person for each leg, regardless of placement or event at Trials? That’s something for the JAAA and other relevant stakeholders to decide. They should figure it out once and for all and then properly publicise the final policy so that the man in the street can be more aware of how the process works. There will still be grumbling because they won’t be able to please everyone, but that’s just life and naysayers will have to move on eventually.
And for the love of all things bright and beautiful, WE NEED TO START HAVING MANDATORY RELAY CAMPS! This has come up every year since Usain Bolt went down in 2017 and we stopped automatically winning the men’s relay (MASSIVE congrats to our men who broke the drought with a bronze finish today, by the way). The calls were only strengthened last year when our ladies got properly flogged in Eugene. The JAAA policy currently states, It is a condition for selection that the athletes selected for the relay pool must be available when required for relay practice, but as far as I know, that’s usually once they get to the championships, not before. That doesn’t give enough time for people to gel and build chemistry or for the technical directors to work things out and select the best possible squad. We have to stop taking it for granted that because our athletes are fast, they are invincible—especially our women. Clearly, they are not, so we must prepare and give them the best chance to win. The world has changed and we have to be prepared to change with it or spend the next decade or two in gold medal exile, reminiscing on the good old days when we used to dominate.
Going back to today’s events, I had been grumbling about Shashalee’s performance on the third leg and likely would have carried that sour attitude all the way into tomorrow’s final day, but I was rage scrolling on Twitter and saw some tweets (yes, TWITTER and TWEETS cuz Elon cyaan mek mi call dem anything else) that gave me some perspective. So Shashalee, I’m sorry for being a hater.
Let’s look at some facts:
- The team that ran in the heats yesterday did 41.70 seconds, compared to 41.59 for the US. The team today ran 41.21 second, which is the eighth fastest time ever. The US ran 41.03, just a shade off our national record of 41.02 from Tokyo 2020-One. Love the lineup or hate it, the team that ran today was almost .50 seconds faster than the one that ran yesterday, even with Shelly’s injury taking some of the speed out of her performance.
- Shashalee never got to take a running start because she waited on Shelly to come in for the baton exchange. That also took some speed out, but she had the presence of mind to recognise that her teammate was hurt and had to quickly adjust. Shelly didn’t have anything left to run her down and hand over the baton. That could have been a disaster not only for our darling veteran but the team overall. Shashalee showed wisdom and we should be commending her for her maturity.
- Shelly also could have stopped in the name of self-preservation. Some people believe she should have stopped, but she took one for the team. Let’s honour her sacrifice and be grateful for the silver medal and hope the injury aggravation isn’t career-ending. I, like any decent fan of the sport, want her to be able to close this chapter of her life on her own terms.
I’d also like to remind folks that we neva have no gold medal puddung and we’re not entitled to same just because we want it. Other teams want it, too, and where we’ve become complacent, they are working for it. If we were paying attention all season, we could have seen that it would have taken a lot to beat the US. Shelly was out of commission for most of the season and she’s most likely ending it today with this injury. Elaine has been out of sorts as well and didn’t even make the team outright. Shericka has been the lone soldier and last time I checked, a relay takes four people. This was also her seventh race, and she just didn’t have the legs to chase down the flying Sha’Carri. She is also under the weather and I’m sure yesterday’s 21.41 run took a lot out of her. When you look at it, we’ve been relying on the same set of women for a while now and it’s clear we have a rather limited pool to choose from. In comparison, Ova Suh has a whole lake. They didn’t have a better team last year but beat us on execution. They had the better team this year and kicked our butts, simple as that. In fact, with cleaner passes, they might have reset the WR. Dat woulda really mek we frawt up! 😂
At the end of the day, our ladies did well to get that silver medal and we should be grateful and commend them for their efforts. It’s okay to be disappointed and even to express it, but some of the things people are saying is just mean-spirited and display a shocking amount of entitlement and ingratitude. I hope the powers that be can take the lessons from the debates and debacles of this week and put things in place to help Jamaica maintain its place among the best in the athletics world. Where there is politics and corrupt, self-serving practices, they need to end. The foolishness permeates all our sporting associations and federations, but that’s another blog for another day and mi done write now.
(Sike! I’ll be doing a post highlighting my favourite moments from Budapest tomorrow or Monday, so look out for that! 🙂)
Written by Tracey 