'Looked worse than the amateur kids' - American sprint legend Carl Lewis slams Team USA men's relay failure

Lewis, who won ten Olympic medals including 4x100m golds at Los Angeles 1984 and Barcelona in 1992, was stunned by Team USA falling short in their heat. The US quartet of Ronnie Baker, Trayvon Bromell, Cravon Gillespie, and Fred Kerley finished sixth out of eight teams in heat two on Thursday, running a time of 38.10 seconds. "They did everything wrong in the men's relay. The passing system is wrong, athletes [are] running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership,” the 60-year-old said. China won the heat in 37.92 with Canada second, a mere two thousands of a second behind the winners, while Italy came third in 37.95 as they all qualified for the final. Germany finished fourth in 38.06 while Ghana’s 38.08 secured them fifth as they also came in ahead of the USA. In a Twitter post, Lewis didn’t hold back with his thoughts as he compared the runners to young amateur athletes. "It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU [Amateur Athletic Union] kids I saw,” he wrote. Four-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson was also unimpressed, branding the performance “embarrassing and ridiculous,” adding: “This isn't rocket science. "Trying to get two people running full speed to exchange a baton within a 20-metre zone requires practice!” Incredibly, the Americans haven’t won a 4x100m Olympic gold since Sydney 2000 and their last medal at the Games was in 2004 at Athens when they took silver. Speaking after the latest disappointment, Gillespie admitted he was at a loss to explain the performance. "Honestly, I’m not even sure. We’ve definitely got to pick up for the world championships next year and the next Olympics, because this was unacceptable,” he said. Kerley echoed his sentiments, adding: “We just didn’t get the job done, no excuses.” Bromell earlier failed to make the 100m final, finishing third in his semi-final behind Team GB’s Zharnel Hughes and Enoch Adegoke of Nigeria, but Kerley took silver and Baker finished fifth. A message from the Editor: Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.