It’s gotten to be a cliche: American 4×1 relay teams at IAAF worlds and the Olympics are disasters in waiting. Berlin was just the latest example, when both U.S. squads failed. So how did the American quartets perform at Lahti worlds?  Perfect. Not one dropped baton or DNF. In fact, every Team USA unit came home with a medal — in both the 4×1 and the 4×4. But how did the masters do overall in Lahti?  I counted 90 men’s and women’s teams entered in the 400-meter relays in this results page from August 8. Some 20 races were contested in the 4×1, men and women combined. How many teams were disqualified? Would you believe one? Yup, the only DQ of the day came in the W60 event, when the Mexican team of Ma De Los Angeles Rivera, Josefa Garcia Desales, Ernestina Ramirez Garcia and Maria Perez Barco was red-flagged. Not sure why.

Here’s me and my fellow M55 relayists (at right) on medal stand for 4×1.

However, the M45 Italian team, featuring world record holder Enrico Saraceni, had the bad luck of not finishing either the 4×1 or 4×4. I’d like to learn what happened to them.

The Italians were apparently the only DNFs in the relays at Lahti: 

M45 4 x 100 m                       Final Stadion

  1. United States USA                                 45,22
        Darnell Gatling
        Marcus Shute
        Eric Merriweather
        David Ashford

  2. Finland FIN                                       45,26
        Jari Harmaala
        Jukka Mononen
        Pertti Purola
        Mauno Leskelä

  3. Germany GER                                       46,86
        Robert Wagner
        Manfred Hiller
        Gert Deppe
        Burghardt Funk

  4. France FRA                                        47,03
        Thierry Zapha
        Vincent Bernard
        Patrice Belly
        Frederic Hulbert

  5. Great Britain & NI GBR                            49,76
        Michael May
        Clive Pengelly
        Allan Leiper
        Brian Matthews

     Italy ITA                                           DNF
        Domenico Furia
        Enrico Saraceni
        Fausto Bianchi
        Ugo Zuliani

M45 4 x 400 m                       Final Stadion

  1. Russia RUS                                      3.35,61
        Alexander Markov
        Ravil Gadelshin
        Vladislav Kutsaev
        Konstantin Shestakov

  2. United States USA                               3.36,71
        Darnell Gatling
        Marcus Shute
        Corey Moody
        William Marshall

  3. Finland FIN                                     3.37,11
        Mauno Leskelä
        Arto Elomäki
        Jukka Kaukola
        Hannu Pakarinen

  4. Germany GER                                     3.42,74
        Manfred Hiller
        Robert Wagner
        Burghardt Funk
        Gert Deppe

  5. France FRA                                      3.43,44
        Thierry Zapha
        Vincent Bernard
        Michel Remy
        Frederic Hulbert

  6. Great Britain & NI GBR                          3.55,38
        Donald Brown
        Andy Gannaway
        Allan Leiper
        Clive Pengelly

  7. Spain ESP                                       4.07,01
        Ricard Rof
        Antonio Carmelo Ramirez
        Angel Sanchez
        Tomas Hernandez

     Italy ITA                                           DNF
        Ugo Zuliani
        Fausto Bianchi
        Alessandro Manfredi
        Enrico Saraceni

The fact remains, however, that even with limited practice and gimpy legs, the relays at Lahti passed in the zones and held tight to the batons.

Yeah, yeah. I know the kids go faster. But it’s all relative.

We also had to find that perfect balance of not going out too fast or too slow.

We managed. How come the “professionals” can’t?

(Also, Tom Phillips has added a Team USA gallery to his Lahti photo offerings. Mine will follow eventually.)