Dear Editor,

The American athlete who pretended he was opening and drinking a bottle of champagne before he crossed the line to win the semi-final in the 4x100m men’s relay should discard that bottle because his team lost in the final. That is called counting your chickens before they are hatched.

As for the Jamaican women, they lost the 4x100m relay because they have not learnt that relays in track, just like other team sports, are about team work and not only individual talent.

When you replace your A team, whose baton passing is obviously faulty, with a B team in the semi-final, you are opening the door to trouble. It would have been better to use the A team and given them more practice in learning to work together.

In the final Jamaica returned to the A team, but a messy first pass of the baton sealed their fate. They started with their slowest runners, Elaine Thompson-Herah, who has not been running well recently, and Kemba Nelson, a newcomer. This, coupled with a bad baton change between them, enabled the American team to gain a lead which Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (third leg ) and Shericka Jackson (fourth leg ) could not rein in.

In contrast, the American team’s baton changing was flawless.

A better tactic would have been to run their fastest sprinter on the second and longest leg, which would have prevented giving up an early lead to the Americans and made it more difficult for them to win.

The tactic employed by the Jamaican coach backfired and cost them the race. The Jamaica women won all but one of the six sprint medals but lost to a team who won none but had better team work.

As an American runner said, “Pure speed is not all that matters.”

We still have not learnt it all in Jamaica.

Victor A Dixon

victoradixon@yahoo.com