Rio Olympics 2016: US women’s relay team bizarrely race alone on track after getting 4x100m reprieve
THE US women's 4x100 metres relay team took full advantage of a reprieve to qualify for the final tomorrow - bizarrely racing round the Rio track ALONE.
The reigning champions had a nightmare morning heat yesterday when Allyson Felix messed up the second baton exchange with English Gardner.
But the US argued that four-times Olympic gold medallist Felix had been impeded by a Brazilian athlete before the handover.
Slow motion TV replays after the race clearly showed Brazilian Franciela Krasucki bumping Felix just before she attempted to hand over the baton to Gardner.
Felix said afterwards: "I think I got propelled at about 20 miles an hour.
"When a foreign object comes in front of you, it's going to mess up the momentum and the handover."
The appealed - and won - meaning they had to beat slowest original finalists China's time of 42.70 seconds to qualify for the showpiece final.
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That time was easily achieved by world record holders with Felix, Gardner, Tianna Bartoletta and Morolake Akinosun ensuring there would be no repeat mistake.
They ran it in 41.77 seconds on a totally empty track to record the second fastest time of the year.
China had every right to feel hard done by after only finishing eighth behind the Canadians by six thousandths of a second - while their appeal against the successful US appeal was rejected.
The United States will now join arch-rivals Jamaica, Britain, Germany, Ukraine, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago and Canada in the early hours of this morning.
Jamaica's Elaine Thompson has a chance to sweep the sprint medals at the Rio Olympics, having won the 200 metres on Wednesday to add to the 100 title she took from relay team-mate Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce earlier in the week.
Thompson has a shot to match fellow countryman Usain Bolt's feat at the last two Olympics while Great Britain go in lane 5.