The Jamaica Star :: Sport :: Relay gold will not come easy

by Leighton Levy, Freelance Writer

Michael Frater competing in the 4x100m at the 2008 Penn Relays. - Anthony Foster

For all the sprinting speed at their disposal, Jamaica's men may find themselves still without the prized gold medal or a world record in the sprint relays after the Beijing Games.

That is, unless the country affords its sprinters more time to prepare, says 2005 World Championships silver medallist Michael Frater.

Frater, the 2003 Pan American Games champion, who local pundits expect will be a member of the Jamaican relay squad that should also include 100-metre world record holder Usain Bolt and former world record holder Asafa Powell for the Olympic Games this summer, has for years lamented the lack of proper preparation for major relays, convinced that not nearly enough is being done in this regard.

"The potential has always been there for us to run fast, that is not going to be an issue," he says. "The issue is whether we are going to have baton changes early enough so that we can have proper execution of the relays. Over the last couple years since I have been a member of the relay teams we hadn't done work sufficient enough to win."

Inadequate preparation

He cites last year's close loss to the United States at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, as the most recent example of inadequate preparation costing the country a gold medal.

Two poor baton changes prior to the final leg caused 100-metre bronze medallist Asafa Powell, who blazed the leg in an all-time best 8.84 seconds, to end up chasing the American runner to the line, finishing a close second. The team still managed to set a national record of 37.89 seconds, almost half-a-second outside the existing world record of 37.40 seconds set by the United States in 1992.

"Last year I watched the guys out there; they had more than enough speed, better than the US for sure, but they still went out there and lost and that's a lack of preparation," Frater said. "The speed has always been there so unless the coaches organise something for us to go out there and do some practices before the Olympics then we might end up with the same scenario again."

Critical changes

Baton exchanges are very critical, Frater argues, so much so that extreme speed is not always necessary to set a world record or win a gold medal.

"When you look at France with four average sprinters breaking the world record (37.80 in 1990) and winning ... baton changes have always been the key to relay success so unless we have that it doesn't matter how fast the guys are."

He says he would love to be on a team that is capable of winning the gold but the bigger picture is winning.

"It would be nice for me to be on the relay team but we are not going to have as good a chance as people think if we don't practice our baton changes," he concludes.