China’s ‘calamitous’ women’s World Championship 4x100m relay ends in embarrassment after baton handover farce
- First women’s 4x100m final in 22 years ends in tears and disqualification in Doha
- Despite being praised for going back and finishing the race, team miss out on Olympic spot next summer
China’s women’s 4x100m sprint team have been called a “calamity” after their disastrous last baton change in the final of the IAAF World Championships in Doha on Saturday night.
With the team in the running for a medal going into the final leg of the relay final, Kong Lingwei failed to pass the baton to Ge Manqi in the correct zone.
While every other nation was sprinting to the finish line the pair instead ran backwards to the change zone to try again.
They eventually did pass the baton over to finish in 1:05:97, almost 25 seconds behind the gold medal-winning Jamaica team in 41:45. Great Britain and the USA finished with silver and bronze.
After some initial confusion, China were initially praised for going back to finish the race because the top eight teams were guaranteed a place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics next summer.
BBC host Gabby Logan said: “We were watching the Chinese thinking what are they doing and actually to have the presence of mind to do that at that moment when your adrenaline, everything is going crazy is pretty smart.”