This is by no means a rare occurence for the US men's 4x100 team. If anyone wants to do the research, I think they'll find that the US men(4x100) have established quite a tradition of dropping the baton, or otherwise DQing, in the Olympics and World Championships. In my mind, over the last 25(?) years, these guys are beyond disappointing.

This is not to say that blind passes in a sprint relay are trivial. From my limited experience, I think they are quite challenging, significantly more difficult than avoiding an orienteering DQ, but the other teams seem to master this consistently. Furthermore, in a qualifier, when you are clearly a superior team, and you have a history of this problem, I have no sympathy for these athletes or *coaches*. This is beyond disappointing.

Now back to US orienteering- From my perspective, our DQ rate (for many reasons) in international events (top relays, multi days, and WOC's) has also been alarmingly high, although still better than the men's 4x100.

During the recent WOC I almost sent Spike a private email to prod some data research on the extent of this problem. I think enough time has passed to raise this issue in public, so that it can be acknowledged and addressed appropriately. If my perception is wrong, great.

And yes (for the baseball fans), despite Jimmy Rollins' comments, I do believe that a *little* Philadelphia booing can play a constructive role. :-)

EricW
 

3 of the 9 in the WOC Sprint? Try 3 of the 6. 50%.

It might be that one of the causes of something like this is focusing too much on going fast instead of having some kind of orienteering process goal, but it also might not be. :-)
 

Fixed the error...3 of 6 it is.
 

If it's easy to fix, can you suggest some etudes?

This problem is kind of like an electrical circuit with a bad connection somewhere. Most of the time it works, but when you wave your hand over it sometimes it fails. Fixing such a circuit is generally tedious and hard. Often it's easier to build a new one from scratch.

So, starting from scratch, what is a fail-safe procedure for navigating to the correct control?
 

It has to be unbelievably frustrating to train the hours those athletes do though and drop a baton. It's one thing to finish fourth and miss a medal. At least you gave it a shot. But to be disqualified? Not a good feeling.