US Team Gets Second Chance at 4x100 Final after Sprinter Allyson Felix Drops Baton
The Americans will run a time trial alone Thursday night.
— -- The U.S. women's 4x100 relay team will get a second chance to advance to the final after dropping the baton during a qualifying round Thursday.
The Americans submitted an appeal to argue that sprinter Allyson Felix was bumped by a Brazilian runner as she was handing the baton off to teammate English Gardner. Replays showed how Felix lost balance just before the handover, the Associated Press reported.
"I got bumped coming into the exchange zone, and it completely threw me off balance," Felix said, according to the AP. "I tried to hold it together to get to English. Maybe if I had one more step I could have, but I was falling."
The appeal was granted, and the U.S. team will run alone Thursday night to see if they qualify for a chance at Olympic gold.
The team would have to best a time of 42.70 to advance. Beating that time would also lead to a second time trial between the teams for China and Canada, which both qualified for the final with times of 42.70, the International Association of Athletics Federations said in a statement.