Women's 4x100m Relay - PREVIEW

Will 2011 be the year when we finally get to see another US-Jamaica showdown in the women’s sprint relay to match that witnessed at the 2007 World Championships?

After the United States had, just, retained their habitual supremacy in the 4x100m by finishing just 0.03sec ahead of the resurgent Jamaican team in Osaka, the re-match at the 2008 Beijing Olympics was eagerly awaited.

In vain, as both teams contrived to get themselves disqualified in the heats as they failed to negotiate baton changes, leaving a grateful Russian team to pick up the Olympic title in the final.

Hopes rose again before the Berlin World Championships, but there was further anti-climax as the US team failed to complete their qualifying heat, leaving the way clear for a Jamaica quartet including the Olympic gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser and Kerron Stewart, who jointly won the 100m silver, to claim their first women’s sprint relay win at the Championships since 1991.

The Jamaican quartet which held off a Russian team including Irina Privalova comprised Dahlia Duhaney, Juliet Cuthbert, Beverly McDonald and Merlene Ottey, who, now aged 51, ran in the relay team of her adopted country, Slovenia, at the recent Samsung Diamond League meeting in London, after which she assured spectators when being interviewed that she hoped to return to the capital in 2012 to compete in the Olympics!

The Jamaican quartet of Simone Facey, Fraser, Aleen Bailey and Stewart were not under undue pressure in their Berlin final as they won in 42.06sec – 0.18sec slower than they had run in the heats.

The Bahamas, with the experienced likes of Chandra Sturrup and Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, took silver ahead of the German team which, to the huge satisfaction of the crowd, held off Russia’s Olympic champions to take the bronze.

The United States had come to grief when Muna Lee struggled to take the baton from the incoming Alexandria Anderson and then pulled up clutching her hamstring instead.

Anderson will have the opportunity to make amends in 2011, as she is named in a US sprint relay squad which also includes last year’s 100m Diamond Race winner and overwhelming leader this year, Carmelita Jeter, another who was involved on that unhappy evening in Berlin. Jeter leads the 2011 world list at 100m with a time of 10.70, 0.06sec faster than the next woman, Campbell-Brown.

With other runners available of the quality of Marshavet Myers – third in this season’s listings with 10.86 -  Miki Barber, LaShaunte’a Moore and Bianca Knight – the Diamond Race leader at 200m who just missed out on one of the three automatic places in the US trials – the Americans will feel confident.

But so too will Jamaica, who can call once again on Fraser – now Fraser-Pryce – Bailey and Stewart, as well as Sherone Simpson, who shared the 2008 Olympic 100m silver with Stewart, and the double Olympic 200m champion and former World 100m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown. In fact, the Jamaicans could be forgiven for feeling super-confident.

Confidence, however, should always be measured in the sprint relay, where a second’s lack of concentration can see any joint enterprise come to grief. If either of the big battalions foul up once again, there will be a cluster of teams seeking to profit – with one of the most likely profiteers being Ukraine, who have their European title-winning quartet of Olesya Povh, Nataliya Pohrebnyak, Mariya Ryemeyen and Yelizaveta Bryzhina from 2010 available.  European silver medallists France, Poland, Brazil and Britain will also be on the edges ready to pick up any carelessly dropped pieces.

If the batons stay in hand, however, Daegu could have a sprint relay memory to cherish for many years.

Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF