The baton was thrown into the air by Halena.
The audience at the scene immediately let out a cry of exclamation.
Dai Li was so angry that he almost didn't curse.
Frazier's mouth turned up with an expression of gloating.
The problem still lies with Halena.
Throughout the entire process of handing over the baton, neither player made any mistakes. The handover was smooth, the baton was taken over smoothly, and the cooperation between the two parties was smooth. Until the moment Halena grabbed the baton in her hand, Team USA’s The performance can be described as perfect.
This is of course due to the effect of Li Dai's title of "Iron Chain". With this title, Li Dai will not worry about problems with the coordination of the handover baton.
But when Halena pulled her hand back from behind, she made a mistake, and it was a fatal mistake. She did not grasp the baton tightly, causing the baton to fly out of her hand.
Before the game, Halena only practiced baton handover, but not baton reception. This was one of the reasons for his mistakes, and more importantly, it was psychological pressure. The third baton is too important. The young player Halena was temporarily moved to the third battalion position. This gave Halena too much extra pressure, and Halena, who was under pressure, also appeared in this low-level position. forced errors.
Team USA is finished!
This has become the thought of almost everyone watching the game, including head coach Li Dai, who can't bear to continue watching.
But the baton that had escaped his hand flew forward to the right according to its inertia.
In that direction, the two Jamaican players were also handing over the third stick.
The Jamaican team is on the right side of the runway of the US team. Their position is higher than that of the US team. The Jamaican team's relay zone is also in front and right of the US team, and the US team has an accumulated advantage in the first leg. , so the handover of the baton had to be earlier. When Halena threw the baton out, the two players of the Jamaican team were also handing over.
At this time, the two members of the Jamaican team also saw Halena's mistake and saw the baton flying in their direction.
…
The moment the baton was released, Halena screamed that something was wrong. She knew that she had made an unforgivable mistake, which was enough to ruin the American game.
Halena instinctively made a remedy. She lunged forward, then reached out and grabbed the baton in the air. At the same time, his body staggered due to leaning forward. Fortunately, Halena's flexibility was relatively good, and she forcibly controlled her center of gravity to keep her body within the confines of the runway.
With this series of movements, Halena was like performing acrobatics, allowing the American team to wander on the edge of life and death.
Thanks also to Halena's youth, a young athlete with insufficient experience and poor skills, but her victory was that she reacted quickly enough. The moment the baton dropped, Halena's body reacted in time and grabbed the baton again. If it were a slightly older athlete whose reaction time was slightly slower by 0.1 seconds, the baton might actually have fallen to the ground.
"Huh!" Li Dai suddenly let out a sigh of relief, and at the same time, he was frightened and broke into a cold sweat.
"Fortunately, I caught it. It's a blessing that the stick didn't drop." Dai Li began to comfort himself.
In fact, Li Dai also knew that although Halena did not drop the baton, any stagger on her body would definitely affect her speed, and she would lose at least about 0.3 seconds. For a 4x100-meter race, 0.3 seconds is still a long time. Important, so in general, dropping the stick this time is definitely not worth the gain.
Halena, who was already weak, made an unforced error and lost a few tenths of a second. Li Dai had already expected that the American team would be completely defeated by the Jamaican team in the third leg.
But at this moment, something unexpected happened to Dai Li. The Jamaican player suddenly slowed down and almost stopped.
The position of the two Jamaican team players is on the edge of the relay zone.
What's more important is that the baton is still in the hands of the second runner, and she has not completed the handover!
"The handover of the baton by the Jamaican team failed!" Li Dai realized this instantly.
Not far away, the originally gloating expression of Fraser, the head coach of the Jamaican team, instantly froze.
The relay zone of the 4x100-meter relay race is only 20 meters, and since the athletes need to run in advance before taking over the baton, when the athletes enter the relay zone, they are actually close to or even reaching the fastest speed. This kind of At this speed, it only takes the world's top sprinters less than two seconds to pass through the 20-meter relay zone, which means that the entire baton handover process will not take more than two seconds.
In two seconds, there is often only one chance to hand over the baton. Once these two seconds are missed, the athlete must slow down or even stop. Otherwise, if he rushes out of the relay area and completes the handover, it will lead to a foul. Results were cancelled.
The Jamaican team obviously had such a problem. They failed to hand over the baton for the first time, and when they were preparing to hand over the baton for the second time, the athletes' bodies were almost out of the relay area. The Jamaican team was responsible for the third baton. Athletes must stop before heading towards the take-over zone and start again after receiving the baton.
The body stops and starts again, which is equivalent to a standing start. You must know that other athletes start their run-up in advance, but the athletes of the Jamaican team stop first and then start from a standstill. This loss in speed is calculated in "seconds". During the competition, if something happens In this case, it is equivalent to giving up the game directly.
Sure enough, the third player in the Jamaican team stopped, took over, and started again. After completing this series of actions, the other seven players had already left her behind. She was two seconds slower than the first-place American player.
"What happened just now? Why did the Jamaican team make such a serious mistake?" Li Dai felt a little baffled. He had just focused all his attention on Halena, so he didn't see how the Jamaican team made such a serious mistake. Mistaken.
Not only Li Dai, but everyone else also paid attention to Halena. No one noticed what happened to the Jamaican team. It was not until the Jamaican players stopped that they discovered that the Jamaican team had handed over the baton for the first time. It didn't go smoothly.
The Jamaican flying woman started to catch up after falling behind. It must be said that her strength is indeed stronger than other players, but the gap of at least two seconds cannot be filled so easily. Even though the Jamaican team has two of the fastest female trapeze women in the world, they are not more than two seconds faster than players from other countries.
At the same time, Halena, who was in charge of the third leg, was also racing with all her might.
Halena also knew that she had made an unforgivable mistake. Although she finally took control of the baton, she would definitely lose a lot of time, so she was eager to make up for her mistake.
Halena's mentality has also changed. Before, she was very nervous and worried that her poor performance would affect the whole team. But now after a mistake, she has no pressure anymore. Just like a person, when he is rich, he will always worry about his property being occupied by others, but when he has nothing, he will become fearless.
At this time, Halena let go of all the burden in her heart. Since she had made a mistake once, she would give it up!
Halena also learned her shame and then acted bravely. At this time, she performed at 120% of her usual level. At least compared to the third-best players from other countries, Halena, the "inferior horse", is not too slow.
Finally, Halena rushed to the relay area and handed the baton steadily to the fourth player.
…
The fourth leg of the American team has already rushed out of the relay zone, while the fourth leg of the Jamaican team has just begun to hand over.
With a gap of two seconds, no matter how powerful the Jamaican team is, it is impossible to catch up. In fact, the moment the Jamaican team made a mistake in handing over the baton, they were already out of contention for medals.
Without the Jamaican team, the United States team is the strongest team on the field.
Entering the final 100 meters of sprinting, the American team was already far ahead, with their lead approaching half a second.
"Stable!" Dai Li finally showed a relaxed look, and then looked at the Jamaican team.
The champion of the 100-meter dash was now in last place, but she did not give up. She was still struggling to catch up, even though she knew very well in her heart that this was just a fearless struggle.
"What I'm curious about now is what happened during the handover of the second and third legs of the Jamaican team just now." Dai Li thought to himself.
…
The U.S. team crossed the finish line first, with a time of 41.36 seconds. If Halena hadn't made a mistake, the U.S. team might have had a chance to get within 41 seconds. Halena's mistake probably cost the U.S. team 0.3 seconds. time.
The Jamaican team, the biggest favorite before the game, could only be ranked last.
While the American team members embraced and celebrated, the big screen at the scene also showed a replay of the scene where Halena made a mistake just now. What follows next is what happens when the baton is handed over to the Jamaican team.
The replay showed that the baton thrown away by Halena was flying in the direction of the Jamaican team members. At this time, the Jamaican team was also handing over the baton.
In order to get the baton back, Halena made a forward movement, and the direction in which she jumped was the direction of the flight of the baton, which was also the direction of the two athletes of the Jamaican team.
The two men were originally handing over the baton, but when they saw Halena suddenly rushing toward them, the two Jamaican players instinctively wanted to dodge, and as a result, they missed the best opportunity to hand over the baton.
But the two men immediately realized this, and they handed over the baton again immediately. However, there was a deviation in the cooperation between the two. When the person taking the baton reached out, the person handing over the baton did not pass it over immediately. And when the person handing over the baton was about to hand over the baton, the person taking over the baton did not open his hand.
This situation is like passing through an intersection without traffic lights. Both pedestrians and cars stop at the same time. Both parties want the other party to pass first. When both parties realize that the other party is letting them go, they choose to move forward at the same time. Then both parties Seeing each other moving forward, they all stopped again. In the end, you let me and I let you, and neither of us passed for a long time. I believe many people have encountered this situation.
The two players of the Jamaican team had similar problems in terms of cooperation. After they missed the best opportunity to hand over the baton, they both planned to accommodate each other. As a result, they still did not complete the handover when they reached the edge of the relay zone.
The big screen at the scene played the slow motion of this shot repeatedly, and Li Dai finally figured out what happened to the Jamaican team.
"It's actually like this, it's too dramatic!" Dai Li said with a look of amazement.
The next second, Li Dai suddenly realized that if it hadn't been for Halena's mistake, the Jamaican team would not have been disturbed. They might have successfully completed the baton handover without such a serious mistake.
If the Jamaican team did not make any mistakes, given the strength of the Jamaican team, the final outcome is still uncertain. It is very likely that the Jamaican team has a greater chance of winning. You must know that in the past few competitions, the results of the Jamaican team are all the best. Within 41 seconds.
It was precisely because of Harena's mistake that the Jamaican team was disturbed and ultimately failed to hand over the baton, thus losing the game.
"There are not so many 'ifs' in the game." Dai Li shook his head slightly, and then he remembered the "Shang Shang Shang". He finally understood why the prophecy box said, let Halena Bob run first. Three sticks, one is signed.
"If Jamaica doesn't make mistakes, we really may not be able to win. Judging from the results, letting Halena run the third leg is really a 'high-end lottery'!"
…
Downey looked at the big screen with a ghostly expression.
He once thought that the American team would win, and he also guessed how the American team would win, but he never thought that the American team would eventually win in this way.
"Coach Li asked Halena to run the third leg, and it really came in handy. She made a mistake and won the game." Downey looked at Dai Li, and he suddenly thought that this might have been arranged by Dai Li in advance. of.
"This kind of thing shouldn't be a tactic arranged in advance. In order to influence the opponent, the athletes deliberately let the baton fly. If this thing does not affect the opponent and drops the baton, what should I do? No coach would Arrange such a 'second-rate' tactic."
…
In the athletes' lounge, Alexander and Ford looked at the TV with surprised expressions.
"You actually won the game in this way. This must not have been arranged in advance, right?" Alexander murmured to himself.
"It was definitely not arranged in advance. How could any coach ask an athlete to drop the bat on purpose?" Ford said.
"If this was not a prearranged tactic, then why did Coach Li let Halena run the third leg? But she made a mistake. This should be a bad change, right?" Alexander continued.
"How could Coach Li make a bad tactical choice! Coach Li's decision is always the best." Ford shook his head.
"So, this is the tactic that was planned before. Maybe the failure of the handover of the Jamaican team was also part of Coach Li's plan." Alexander muttered softly.
Several athletes nearby looked at Alexander as if he were an idiot. They felt that the new 100-meter champion seemed to be missing a muscle in his mind.
For a coach to predict when his opponent will make a mistake, only a ghost would believe that such a thing would happen!
…
As for the Jamaican team, almost everyone was ashen-faced.
The game was lost, and the way the game was lost was really hard to accept.
The Jamaican team originally aimed to win the championship, but in reality not only did they not win the championship, they also did not win a medal.
Looking at the slow-motion picture on the big screen at the scene, Fraser, the head coach of the Jamaican team, became completely angry.
"It's the American athlete. If she hadn't made a mistake, my two team members would not have been affected! I want to complain. I want to complain to the International Olympic Committee. The American team is deliberately interfering with us!"