How another handoff snafu cost US men's relay team in upset loss to Canada at World Track & Field Championships

Zac Al-Khateeb

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How another handoff snafu cost US men's relay team in upset loss to Canada at World Track & Field Championships image

The U.S. men's 4x100 relay team suffered a shocking upset loss to Canada in the event final Saturday at the World Athletics Championships, denying the team its second consecutive gold in the event.

Team USA was haunted by the ghost of Olympic and World failure as yet another botched handoff cost the team gold. The U.S. (37.55 seconds) finished second by .07 seconds to the Canadians (37.48), with the latter winning their first gold in the event since 1997.

This botched handoff occurred between the runner of the third leg, Elijah Hall, and the anchor, Marvin Bracy. The slipup cost the U.S. a 0.9-second lead as the race entered the final leg. Hall faltered in his attempt to get Bracy the baton:

MORE: US men's latest Olympic 4x100 relay failure draws harsh criticism from Carl Lewis

A leg-by-leg breakdown of the race showed the botched handoff resulted in Bracy, the silver medalist in this year's 100 meters, running the final leg of the race in 8.95 seconds. That is 0.16 seconds slower than Canadian anchor Andre De Grasse.

Video replay shows that Hall failed to get Bracy the baton cleanly, eventually hitting him in the back of the hand and forcing him to reach low to grab it. By the time the U.S. got the handoff, De Grasse was in full stride and Bracy was unable to overtake him.

Though not as pronounced as the failure in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics — where the U.S. finished sixth in its semifinal heat — Saturday's snafu raises new questions about how the team can improve its handoffs. In fact, the U.S. has been trying to answer those questions for the better part of 2 1/2 decades amid constant drops and violations. 

Last year, team members hinted at dysfunction among runners and a lack of practice in handing off the baton.

Those issues appear to have returned in Saturday's final — one whose silver lining makes it all the more disappointing.

Zac Al-Khateeb

Zac Al-Khateeb Photo

Zac Al-Khateeb has been part of The Sporting News team since 2015 after earning his Bachelor's (2013) and Master's (2014) degrees in journalism at the University of Alabama. Prior to joining TSN, he covered high school sports and general news in Alabama. A college sports specialist, Zac has been a voter for the Biletnikoff Award and Heisman Trophy since 2020.