TRACK AND FIELD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

The United States women’s foursome did just what it needed to hold off favored Jamaica in the 4 x 100 relay championship.

But for the favored USA men’s 4 x 100 quartet, it proved once again that pure speed is not all matters in these races, especially in this stick pass where a slight mistake can be costly.

With Abby Steiner a last-minute replacement for ill third leg Janis Hoge, the ladies in red, white and blue did a masterful job of passing the baton as anchor leg Twanisha Terry held off Jamaica’s 200-meter gold medalist Sherrica Jackson for a .04-second victory.

It came about in beautiful style from start to finish, from Melissa Jefferson to Stiener to Jenna Prandini to Terry. In the semifinals the USA had the fastest finish of 41.56, and Jamaica clocked a fourth place 42.37 and had to advance to the finals via its qualifying time, while Germany ran 42.44.

But in the finals, the Americans had little time to practice their stick-pass with Steiner getting a late call. But she did fine. So did Jefferson, although she put Prandini in second place a stride behind Jamaica. Prandini though quickly gained the lead and handed off to Terry, who maintained it as Jackson closed, and sped across the finish line with a big smile and threw her arms in the air.

After her three running mates dashed to the finish to celebrate, Prandini said: “She (Terry) celebrated by doing her ‘dirtbike dance,’ hopping on one foot while revving the handlebars of her pretend, superfast bike.”

With her long dark hair hanging over her, Terry’s reaction fit right in.

“I just felt the crowd go crazy,” she said, “it was very electrifying.”

The USA finished in a blazing 41.14. Jamaica timed 41.18 and third place Germany clocked 42.03.

It was a true team effort by the red, white and blue. Jefferson knew she had to be off and racing at the starter’s gun, Steiner knew she had to pass the baton perfectly and did, and Prandini just took off with the baton and took the lead quickly racing toward Terry.

The USA men? Not so good. As has often been the case in this most daring of all the relays, a poor hand-off from third leg Elijah Hall to anchor leg Marvin Bracy. Chris Coleman ran his usual swift opening leg and gave 100-meter champion Noah Lyles the lead.

Lyles increased it as he handed off to Hall, but when the latter got to Bracy with the baton, Bracy twice reached behind and whiffing on the exchange as Hall tumbled to the ground after finally getting the stick into Bracy’s hand.

“Not being clean cost us the race,” Bracy had posted on Twitter before he’d even made it through the interview area. “No excuses. We let y’all down, my apologies.”

Despite this costly error, the US men will at least leave with silver, for they’d been shut out in six of the last 13 worlds and three of the last four Olympics — although this can’t be framed as anything but an unsatisfactory result.

“You could come out of here with nothing,” Bracy said. “But we’ve got to clean it up. We’ve got a lot of work to do to continue to get better.”

Bracy was then faced with a tough last leg versus Canada’s 200-meter Olympic champion Andre De Grasse, and he made a go of it before finishing 0.07 behind De Grasse. No telling what a better stick-pass would have brought.

De Grasse could barely walk up his steps four weeks ago while recovering from COVID-19. He didn’t make it through 100-meter heats last weekend and pulled out of the 200 altogether.

He anchored a trio that didn’t appear like the team to beat. There was Aaron Brown, who finished seventh in the 100 and eighth in the 200, Jerome Blake, who didn’t make the final in either, and Brendon Rodney, who was part of Canada’s relay pool.