Cravon Gillespie, of US reacts after finishing a semifinal of the men's 4 x 100-metre relay. Photo / AP
Cravon Gillespie, of US reacts after finishing a semifinal of the men's 4 x 100-metre relay. Photo / AP
In a shock upset on the Tokyo track, the American team failed to qualify for the men's 4 x 100m relay final after finishing sixth in their heat on Thursday morning.
After botching a couple of baton exchanges, the US quartet registered a time of 38.10 which wasn't enough to progress through to the top eight.
"USA really stuffed up their changes," Channel 7 commentator Tamsyn Lewis said.
Zhiqiang Wu, of China anchors his team to win a semifinal of the men's 4 x 100-metre relay. Photo / AP
"Fred Kerley to Baker. The third one again was horrendous. They dropped back. China was very smart. They made Su's leg super, super long. Their change was terrible. Hopefully we get another look at it. Just haven't done enough changes."
Bruce McAvaney continued: "Coming to the final baton change, there were seven teams in a row basically, weren't there? De Grasse had to do something quite extraordinary to wind up and get Canada through. And China, China with that great baton work and Su in their team on the bend.
"You see here the despair."
China won the heat with a time of 37.92, narrowly trumping the Canadians by less than one hundredth of a second.
Cravon Gillespie, of United States reacts after finishing a semifinal of the men's 4 x 100-metre relay. Photo / AP
Zhiqiang Wu, of China anchors his team to win a semifinal of the men's 4 x 100-metre relay. Photo / AP
The Telegraph's Ben Bloom tweeted: "Yet another Olympic men's 4x100m relay disaster for the United States. It's crazy that they have not won a medal since 2004."
The USA team did everything wrong in the men's relay. The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU kids I saw .
Earlier, the American women's relay team comfortably qualified for their 4 x 100m final after placing second in their heat with a time of 41.90.
On Wednesday evening, Andre de Grasse "shocked the world" after storming to victory in the 200m final as the United States' 17-year sprinting gold medal drought continued.
Canadian star de Grasse completed a long road back from injury and illness to win gold in 19.62s, with the USA's Kenny Bednarek taking silver in 19.68s and world 200m champion Noah Lyles the bronze in 19.74s.
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American teen Erriyon Knighton finished just outside the medals in fourth with a time of 19.93s.
"I want everyone to know that I shocked the world," said de Grasse, who also took silver in the 200m behind Lyles at the 2019 world championships.
De Grasse's 200m victory in Tokyo and the 100m triumph of Italy's Lamont Marcell Jacobs mean that the US remains without a victory in the individual Olympic men's short sprints since 2004.
By the time of the next Olympics in Paris it will be 20 years since Justin Gatlin and Shawn Crawford completed a 100-200 US double at the Athens Games.
