A clumsy handover of the baton in the 4x100 metres men's final at the Stade de France in Paris on Friday, August 9, 2024, evening saw the US men's 4x100 relay team lose its chance to race past its rivals and win a gold/silver/bronze medal.
Worse, the US team -- Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley, Kenneth Bednarek and Kyree King -- were disqualified under rule TR24.7, which deals with passing the baton outside the takeover zone (early/late takeover).
The first exchange of the baton between Coleman and Bednarek took place after a fumble, causing the final passage to take place outside the marked zone, resulting in the disqualification.
Canada won the gold with timings of of 37.50 followed by South Africa (37.57) and Great Britain (37.61).
After the 4x100m semi-final, when Noah Lyles -- the Olympic 100m gold medalist and 200m bronze medalist -- was asked about how the Americans viewed the Canadians, Lyles mocked the Canadians, asking, repeatedly, 'Who? Who? Who?' Lyles, who has COVID-19, was deemed unfit to run the 4x100m final.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
