Rio Olympimpics: U.S. women's 4x100 relay team granted re-run after dropped baton

There was high drama on the track for the USA women’s 4x100 relay team on Thursday morning at the Rio Olympics.

The Americans, ruing in the second of three heats, failed to advance after dropping the baton on the second exchange, between Allyson Felix and English Gardner. However, Felix told NBC that she was contacted, and a replay did in fact confirm that the Brazilian third leg, ruing next to the Americans, swung her elbow far into the American lane, contacting Felix as she attempted to hand Gardner the baton.

USA Track & Field submitted a protest of the race, and the Brazilian team was disqualified. After a lengthy debate, the appeal jury for the IATF (the governing international federation for the sport) agreed that the Americans’ chances were unfairly impacted by the contact. The IATF granted the USA a Hail Mary heat—the defending gold medalists will run a solo heat at 4 p.m. PST, needing to hit a mark of 42.69 or lower to qualify into the Olympic final on time.

Felix’s heads-up actions saved the Americans. With the baton laying on the ground and Gardner near tears, it was Felix who realized Team USA couldn’t lodge a protest if they didn’t finish the heat. She picked the baton up and told Gardner to keep ruing—even though they finished 10 seconds after the other teams in the heat, the fact that the USA logged a finishing time allowed them to protest, and have the opportunity for a re-run.

For Long Beach sports fans, the re-run gives another potential chance to see Long Beach Poly grad Ariana Washington, who did not run on the initial prelim heat. Washington could still run on in the final Friday night, although she caot run in Thursday afternoon’s re-run as the Americans will have to run it in the same order, in the same lane as Thursday morning’s heat per IAAF rules.

Should the Americans advance to the final in the re-run, the Chinese or Canadian relay would be eliminated as they ran the same qualifying time of 42.70.

NBC has not yet updated its TV schedule to confirm that the re-run will be broadcast on television, but it will be live on NBCOlympics.com.

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