Summer Olympics 2016: What to Watch for on Day 14 in Rio
The defending gold medalists in the women’s 4x100-meter relay suffered a bit of drama in their heat Thursday afternoon at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Brazil’s third-leg sprinter interfered with Team USA’s Allyson Felix, causing Felix to fumble the handoff with English Gardner. Team USA was granted a second chance, this time to run against the clock for a bid in the final. They did it, but, boy, was that odd.
In other news, Team USA’s Jenn Suhr goes for a gold-medal defense in the pole vault and Nikki Hamblin, made famous by her with Abbey D’Agostino in the 5,000 meters, will run against incredibly accomplished distance runners.
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Oh, and the men’s 4x100-meter relay will feature Usain Bolt and Co. as he vies for a ninth gold medal, ending his career a perfect nine-of-nine.
Team USA’s Jenn Suhr Vaults for Her Defense
Jenn Suhr, the defending pole vault gold medalist and native of Rochester, New York, earned her way into Friday night’s final by easily clearing 4.60 meters.
All week, the 2012 gold medalist has been dealing with a respiratory infection, though it hasn’t entirely hampered her ability to clear these preliminary heights.
"I thought I came in pretty hard, but I know that I was off in terms of my head, and my perception was off," Suhr said, via the Democrat and Chronicle. "Physically, I feel like I can vault higher than that, but mentally I’m not."
Greece’s Ekaterini Stefanidi and Germany’s Lisa Ryzih will challenge Suhr for the gold medal, as well as world champion Yarisley Silva of Cuba. American Sandi Morris qualified for the final as well and will contend for a medal.
The finals start at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Nikki Hamblin Will Run in the 5,000-Meter Final
The women’s 5,000 meters doesn’t typically move the Olympic ratings scale. It’s a race earmarked for east African domination.
But during the Round 1 heats, Team USA’s Abbey D’Agostino and New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin took a spill. D’Agostino helped Hamblin up, and the two of them finished the race. Both were granted clearance into the final, though D’Agostino suffered a torn ACL in the accident and will miss the event.
D’Agostino said, via NBCNewYork.com:
"Although my actions were instinctual at that moment, the only way I can and have rationalized it is that God prepared my heart to respond that way. This whole time here, he's made clear to me that my experience in Rio was going to be about more than my race performance—and as soon as Nikki got up I knew that was it.
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Should Hamblin win, that would be perhaps the shocker of the Games, but it’s unlikely she can eclipse the world’s best runner at this distance, Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana. Add to that Kenya’s Mercy Cherono and Vivian Cheruiyot, and you’re likely looking at the three medalists right there.
Team USA will throw Shelby Houlihan into this tiger’s cage come 8:40 p.m. ET.
Team USA Reaches the Final, Brazil DQ’d
So this race became one of the more interesting ones thanks to what happened in the preliminary heats.
On the third exchange, Team USA’s Felix botched the second exchange with Gardner. Brazil’s second-leg runner crossed over into Team USA’s lane and interfered with the exchange. Brazil would be disqualified.
“I got bumped coming into the exchange zone,” Felix told USA Today. “It just completely threw me off balance. I tried to pull it together to get it to English. Maybe if I had one more step I could’ve, but I was falling as I was going to her.”
That set up Team USA’s appeal, which was granted, but it had to run by itself against the clock to supplant China’s 42.70. In so doing, Team USA made Friday night’s final with the fastest time, a 41.77.
Meanwhile, Jamaica easily qualified with a time of 41.79 seconds, followed sort of closely by Great Britain’s 41.93 and Germany’s 42.18.
The loser in all of this? China. It went from being in, but based on that appeal, had to watch the Americans run against the clock and muscle their way into the final.
It should be a fascinating final, one that starts at 9:15 p.m. ET.
Jamaica Looks to Earn Ninth Gold Medal for Usain Bolt
No such drama took place in the men’s 4x100-meter heats.
The American team—Mike Rodgers, Christian Coleman, Tyson Gay and Jarrion Lawson—easily qualified for the final.
Their main goal will be to somehow supplant Jamaica, a team anchored by Bolt, who attempts to win a third straight Olympic gold medal in this event and lock down that triple-triple: three gold medals in his three events for three consecutive Olympic Games.
Nobody expects Jamaica to lose, but as we saw with the American women in their qualifying heat, anything can happen. A botched exchange is the difference between bronze and nothing, silver and gold.
After Bolt secured his two gold medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, we await to see what theatrics he and his brethren bring to the track for one final night.
Bolt was noticeably—and admittedly—tired at the end of the 200 Thursday night. Will that affect the relay? It depends. Bolt might need a lead in order to ensure his team’s reign atop the podium.
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