Another Faux Pass as American Relay Team Fails to Reach Final

Canadian ears must have been burning Saturday afternoon when members of the United States men’s 400-meter relay team toasted Donovan Bailey and the defending world champions with a mocking chorus of “Na, Na, Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye.”

Canadian eyes, on the other hand, were smiling hours later when the cocky American challenge to the throne didn’t make it past 100 meters.

On the first leg of the first qualifying heat at the IAAF World Championships, Brian Lewis and Tim Montgomery botched the baton handoff, leaving Montgomery standing idly outside the exchange zone with a useless stick in his hand watching Ghana, Sweden and Ukraine qualify for the semifinals with no further American involvement.

“That’s the Americans for you,” said Glenroy Gilbert, who will run the second leg for Canada in tonight’s 400-meter relay final.

“They’ve got great, great wheels and great, great talent, but they have trouble working together. They have too many egos. We have egos, too, but we work as a unit.”

The American men wound up with another “DNF” stamped on the result sheet, their third in major international competition since 1988. At both the 1988 Olympics and the 1995 World Championships, the U.S. men failed to get out of the first round because of faulty handoffs.

It has been a sorry decline for the once-unchallenged masters of the event, who were reduced Saturday to a cautionary tale for the benefit of the U.S. women’s 400-meter relay team, which took extra care of the baton as it cruised to the gold medal in a final-round time of 41.47 seconds.

“We saw what happened to the men and said, ‘We can’t let that happen to us,’ ” said Marion Jones, who ran the second leg for the U.S. women. “There’s too much talent on this team to let something like that happen.”

“As soon as we saw that,” said U.S. women’s anchor Gail Devers, “our No. 1 goal was, ‘Just get the baton safely around the track.’ ”

The American women completed all four handoffs cleanly--Chryste Gaines to Jones to Inger Miller to Devers. The American men got only as far as Lewis to Montgomery--leaving Dennis Mitchell and Maurice Greene waiting in vain for a baton that never came.

“A simple misunderstanding of when to call for the stick,” was Montgomery’s explanation. Montgomery began running as Lewis approached the exchange area, then stopped as Lewis overran him.

By the time he got his hand on the baton, Montgomery was straddling the outer limit of the exchange area. Spinning in the air, he landed outside the area and ran no more.

“Montgomery stopped and he had no momentum after that,” Mitchell told reporters in the mixed zone. “One mistake and we’re through.”

As Mitchell spoke, Greene, the men’s 100-meter world champion, glared at an overhead television monitor, fuming in silence as he watched Canada successfully complete its heat.

As soon as Bailey crossed the finish, Greene shook his head in disgust and headed for the exit.

The scene was in stark contrast to the swaggering euphoria Greene exuded at an afternoon news conference at the Swedish Embassy, where Greene and U.S. relay teammate Jon Drummond voiced their support for Stockholm’s 2004 Olympic bid.

In front of a table covered with dainty hors d’oeuvres, Greene and Drummond held court as they were asked about the U.S.-Canada relay rivalry.

“Do you have a message for Donovan Bailey?”

“My message is this,” Drummond said, biting loudly into a crunchy egg roll.

With a farewell wave of the hand, Greene added, “It’s been nice.”

Drummond: “I declare war! On the world! It ain’t Donovan Bailey against the USA! It’s the world against the USA!”

Greene: “And we’re going to have fun. It’s going to be a beautiful thing to watch. So I wouldn’t miss it if I was y’all.”

That comment came right after Greene and Drummond dedicated a giggling a capella version of that ballpark staple, “ . . . Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye,” to Bailey and his mates.

No Canadian athletes were present at the time, but they have heard this sort of thing repeatedly after winning the Olympic 400-meter relay title on American soil last summer.

“The thing about them,” Gilbert said, “is that they talk too much. They’re always talking about our ‘reign’ in the sprints being over.

“We’re not reigning. We just try to take it round by round and get to the final.”

Bailey was clearly enjoying the moment, admitting he was “a little sorry” the Americans eliminated themselves because “I really wanted to meet Mr. Greene on the anchor. I really, really wanted to meet him. But that’s not going to happen.

“Instead of talking about beating us, they should have been worrying about passing that little baton so they could get to the [final] race.

“All that talk about being ‘resurrected’--it’s all about getting there. To not have to face them now, it’s just not the same.”

Bailey was asked if he was disappointed the U.S.-Canada showdown never materialized.

“Almost.”

Bailey grinned and winked.

“Almost.”