Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Halyna threw the relay baton into the sky.
Surprised shouts arose in the crowd.
Dai Li couldn’t control his anger and nearly shouted out.
Frazer smirk, very pleased.
Halyna was the one to blame.
During the changeover process, there was no mistake at all. It was perfect until Halyna held the relay baton in her hand.
It went so well, of course, because Dai Li who had the “continuous iron chain” title. He never worried about the changeover.
When Halyna took the relay baton, she didn’t hold it tight and let it fly out of her hand, a huge and terrible mistake.
Before the contest, Halyna had never been trained to take the relay baton, only trained to hand over it. This was one of the reasons for her terrible mistake, but another was that she was under a lot of pressure. The third runner is so critical that Halyna, a young athlete, was shouldering too much of the burden. That was the fundamental reason for her fault.
The U.S. team has lost!
Almost everyone who was there, Dai Li included, thought this and couldn’t bear to watch.
The relay baton flew away towards the front of the race.
The two athletes from Jamaica were making their second changeover in that direction.
Jamaica was in the lane beside the U.S. team, and they were in their passing zone. The U.S. team had accumulated a lead in the first round, which meant that when Halyna threw the relay baton away, the Jamaican team was still passing the baton.
At that moment, the two Jamaicans noticed her fault and the relay baton flying towards them.
When she lost the relay baton, Bob realized that she had made an unforgivable mistake that could destroy the U.S. team’s chance to win.
She tried to do something instinctively, bending forward and reaching her hand to grab the relay baton. She did it! Of course, she almost dropped it but it didn’t fly off the track thanks to her flexibility.
Halyna, moving like an acrobat, pulled the U.S. team back from defeat.
Thanks to her young body, she could move quickly enough to grab the relay baton again. Had she been an older athlete at that moment, they would have lost the game already.
“Woo!” Dai Li breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank god! Not losing the relay baton is a lucky turn of events. Dai Li comforted himself with this thought.
Dai Li knew that, although Halyna didn’t lose it, at least 0.3s were wasted because of the loss of momentum. This was considerable in a race like the 4×100m.
Halyna was just a common athlete who had made a mistake and lost some time, so Dai Li had expected them to lose to the Jamaicans.
However, at that moment, something unbelievable happened: The Jamaican athletes slowed down. They almost stopped, to be exact.
The Jamaican team stopped at the edge of the passing zone.
What was more shocking was that the relay baton hadn’t been passed.
Their changeover failed! Dai Li realized at once.
Next to Dai Li, Fraser’s expression froze instantly.
The passing zone in the 4×100m was only 20m. Actually, before taking over the relay baton, one must start running. Therefore, when they received the baton, they were going as fast as they could. That meant that it took no more than two seconds for top athletes to run out of the passing zone. In other words, the changeover must be finished within two seconds.
You only got one chance for a changeover in two seconds. If the changeover is completed within two seconds, the athletes have to slow down, or even stop running, in order to get the baton in the passing zone. Only then could they start running again without breaking the rules and getting an invalid result.
Obviously, the Jamaican team made such a mistake.
They had to stop to pass the relay baton and speed up again. It was a disaster in a race like this. When such things happened they could just give up. They had lost seconds.
As expected, the third runner of the Jamaican team stopped first, took the relay baton and started running again. Eventually, the Jamaican runner was behind 7 runners. Compared to the U.S. athlete, she was behind by two seconds.
What on the earth happened just now? Why did they make such a horrible fault? Dai Li was confused. Halyna had all his attention at that moment, so he didn’t notice how they made that mistake.
Most other people watching had been paying attention to Halyna too, so most people didn’t realize that the Jamaican runners failed at the changeover until the Jamaican runner stopped on the verge of the passing zone.
The female sprinter tried her best to catch up, but she could do little now, although she was much faster than the other athletes. Even though two of the fastest runners fastest runners in the world were on the Jamaican team, making up for two seconds was impossible.
Meanwhile, the third runner, Halyna, was trying her best to run hard.
Halyna knew that she had made an unforgivable mistake. Although she hadn’t lost the relay baton, she had still wasted some time. She wanted to make up for what she had lost.
Actually, her mentality changed after her mistake. Before, she had been worried about how she would negatively affect the team. After the mistake, the pressure was off. It was like a wealthy man who lived in fear of losing everything had just been robbed. Now that he had nothing, he was fearless.
After unloading her burden, she was fearless and courageous.
Halyna was brave and her shame led her to a nearly flawless performance. Compared with the other third runners, she did much better than she was expected to
Eventually, she rushed into the passing zone and handed the relay baton over to the fourth runner.
The fourth runner from the U.S. ran out of the passing zone while the Jamaican team was still in the process of passing the baton.
Although the Jamaican team was very powerful, they could do nothing about a two-second gap.
Without the threat of the Jamaican team, the U.S. team was the most powerful contender.
After entering into the last leg of the race, the U.S. team acquired a huge lead. They were nearly half a second ahead of the team in second.
“We did it!” Dai Li was relieved and, eventually, looked at the Jamaican team.
The champion of the hundred-meters dash was in last, but she didn’t give up and still exerted herself in an attempt to catch up, despite knowing it was useless.
What happened in their second changeover? Dai Li wondered.
The U.S. team whose speed was 41.36s was the first to break the tape and if Halyna hadn’t made such a mistake, it might have been 41′. The mistake cost 0.3 seconds.
The Jamaican team, which had been most likely to win, came in last.
When the U.S. athletes hugged to celebrate their victory, the big screen showed a replay of Halyna making her mistake. Then, it showed what happened in the Jamaican team’s changeover.
The replay showed that the relay baton was flying towards the Jamaica athletes when they were passing the baton. To take back the relay baton, Halyna bent forward to grab it, right in the direction of the Jamaican athletes.
The two Jamaican athletes were in their changeover when Halyna seemed to run towards them so they dodged instinctively, missing their best chance at the changeover.
The two experienced athletes realized it immediately and they decided to do baton exchange again. They didn’t cooperate with each other well, and the runner about to receive baton reached her hand back but the runner behind her didn’t hand it over in time. Then, when the one handing over the baton was ready, the runner ahead didn’t open her hand.
It was similar to how when a car and pedestrian come to a crosswalk at the same time and they both stop to let the other go. Then, both attempt to go at the same time.
After missing the best chance at the changeover, both of them wanted to compromise with the other. They hadn’t been able to complete the changeover by the end of the passing zone.
The big screen showed the scene again and again and Dai Li finally figured out to the Jamaican team.
“That’s it? Unbelievable!” Dai Li said, filled with surprise.
Suddenly, Dai Li realized that without Halyna’s fault, the Jamaican team wouldn’t have been interrupted. They might have finished the changeover instead of making such a fatal mistake.
If the Jamaican team had avoided the fault, it would have been hard to predict whether the Jamaican team or the U.S. team would have one.
It was Halyna’s fault that interrupted the Jamaican team, which led to their defeat.
Dai Li shook his head and the “Luckiest Draw” came back into his mind. He finally realized why the prediction box said Halyna Bob was the most suitable one to be the third runner.
“Without their mistake, we really don’t know if we would have won or not. Halyna being the third runner was really the best choice!”
Donny looked at the big screen, astonished.
He had always thought the U.S. team could win, but he had never thought they would win in this way.
Mr. Li put Halyna in third, what a wonderful result it is! Donny looked at Dai Li and it occurred to him that the coach might have arranged it in advance.
“It can’t be a tactic designed in advance. If the opponent hadn’t been interrupted and Halyna did lose the baton, it would’ve been a disaster. No coach would have such a risky strategy.”
In the athletes’ lounge, Alexander and Ford watched the TV, amazed.
“I can’t believe a team can win like this! Was it arranged in advance?” Alexander mumbled to himself.
“It couldn’t have been arranged in advance! How could it be possible to arrange for an athlete to lose her baton,” Ford said.
“If that wasn’t arranged in advance, then why did Coach Li put Halyna in third? She did make a mistake, wasn’t it a terrible idea?” Alexander replied.
“How could it be possible? Coach Li does not make bad decisions. His choices are always the best!” Ford shook his head.
“So I guess it was planned in advance. Maybe the Jamaicans’ mistake was part of his plan as well,” Alexander muttered.
The athletes beside Alexander looked at him and wondered what was wrong with this new hundred-meter champion.
What kind of idiot would believe a coach would purposely put in an athlete planning for them to make a mistake?
Everyone in Jamaica was deeply upset.
Losing in this way was difficult for them to accept.
Jamaica was supposed to get the gold medal, but they didn’t even get any medal.
Seeing the picture slowed down on the big screen, Fraser couldn’t control his emotions anymore and got angry.
“That is U.S. athlete ruined the race. Our two athletes can’t be interrupted! I have a complaint. I am about to file it to the IOC, the U.S. team meant to do that!”