USA w4x400 'lock' debate: Why so dominant?

[eldanielfire]

Re: USA w4x400 'lock' debate: Why so dominant?

I very much agree that a combination of Felix and the us raising their game. Felix kills the race at 600m allowing the usa to always run the shortest race. The third factor is the Russian's being unable to bring their a game to championships and poor tactical races and poor order. I've also unconvinced they run their best 4 as well.

[mump boy]

Re: USA w4x400 'lock' debate: Why so dominant?

All of this but it seems to me that all US runners raise their game in the relay. They have great team spirit and treat the relay as an important event not as something they have to do at the end of the meet. I assume this kind of attitude is engendered through schools and collegiate competition where you do everything to earn points

I don't see the same attitude from other teams and certainly not from the UK who's biggest 400m stars coach once told me "the relay doesn't matter" and it's shown in her performances until recently :x

US ran smart, in the right order, great tactics (2011 was the best i've ever seen) and they run with passion. Russia run like they've never met each other before, with ridiculous selection decisions and lacklustre performances.

Great relay running has always been about running above your individual level, using the competition and camaraderie to raise your game. US do this every time and no one else does. When on paper teams are relatively even this is what counts and until other countries can rival this competitive instinct they are going to continue losing

[Gabriella]

Started a separate thread from the 'lock' one so we don't go off piste too much.

The US women have won the last 5 major championships 4x400m, a winning streak that goes back to 2007. Why have they become so dominant and why does it seem that the Russians, who promise so much, just cannot seem to beat them?

The simple answer is: Allyson Felix. As soon as Felix was drafted into the team, the US went from battling closely with the Russians and Jamaicans to dominating them.

Between 2000 and 2005 the USA only legitimately win gold once, in 2003, in a close battle with Russia. They lost both their Sydney and Athens golds due to doping offences and in 2005 they were DQ in the heats. So in the first five years of this century it was Jam 2, Russia 2 and USA 1. Come Osaka and Felix is drafted into the team on the second leg, and then it is all over. Only in Beijing was Felix's devastating leg negated by a good 3rd leg by Firova, but in all those other majors since 2007 it's Felix's leg that has tipped the odds in the USA's favour. Of course, SRR has been a major factor too, but I'd argue that her main contribution was 2011 with the brillaint 1st leg, while her other last legs could probably have been run similarly by other US women, with the big leads she always had.