In the previous post about splitting, I noted the need to adjust for the 3-turn
stagger in the 4x4.
Have I mentioned how much I hate the 3-turn stagger? Was much more fun in the old days
when roller derby broke out at the first exchange with 16 bodies all crammed into a
phone booth.
But even if we'll never see the return to those days, I'd like to see the rules have a
proviso that if there are, say, 4 teams or fewer, that the race be conducted under the
old 2-turn stagger rule. The need for this was never brought home more clearly to me
than when I was announcing what turned out to be the current WR in the 4x4, by the
U.S. team at the Goodwill Games in '98.
There were only 4 teams in the race, and one of them was out of it before the first
handoff anyway. But the Poles and the Jamaicans made a good race of it early.... not
that you'd know it. With the in-lanes stricture, fully 1/3 of the race (ok, only
31.25%) was run in lanes, with the general public not able to appreciate what was
going on. Indeed, it was worse than just "in lanes," becuase the 3-turn stagger
creates such a strange differentiation that isn't relevant to flat 400 running.
A great race would have been even greater with one fewer turn. Now that the IAAF is
finally getting clued into the need to market the sport, hopefully somebody who
thinks in that direction will be given input before rules like this are introduced in
the future.
At least we were only stuck with one year (as I recall) with one of the great
abominations ever, the 4-turn stagger in the 800 back in the mid-'70s.
gh
