Womens 4 x 400m - Russia v Gold Medal

23 August 2008

Preview By Tipster CYellow (England)

Womens 4 x 400m relay

We can pretty much eliminate this field down to 4 instantly as there is no great depth in womens 400m running. The gold medal will be fought out by GBR, Russia, USA and Jamaica.

I am going to immediatly discount Great Britain despite the presence of world champion Christine Ohurogu and runner up Nicola Sanders. Nicola has had an interupted build up to the games, Lee Mconnell looked awful in her semi final and even if they bring in Danvers Smith they will not have enough to trouble the big 3.

Jamaican sprinting couldnt be on a bigger high of they smoked the worlds biggest spliff could it. Usain Bolt, a 1-2-3 in the 100m they must be having the biggest party in the world right now. However their 400m runners have not showered themselves in glory. Novalene Williams who i would argue is their best 400m runner missed out on the finals, Rosmarie Whyte qualified 8th and has done well to make the final and only Shericka Williams has run with any great credit so far. They will either use Spencer or hurdler Melaine Walker in their 4th slot. Its a medal winning quarter and i thought a real threat for gold going into Beijing but i just dont think they can challenge unless firing on all 4 cylinders and it doesnt look to me like they are.

Favourites for the title are the USA led by Sanya Richards. She is looking very relaxed and highly likely to win the individual 400m. But what about the rest? Wineberg and Trotter were horrible in the qualifying rounds and were a country mile off making the final. Hurdlers Williams and Tosta their best 2 400m hurdlers are not looking much better. I imagine they will look to draft in the ludicrously talented Alyson Felix for the final but they are going to have to run out of their skins to make up for whichever other duo runs with them. For me they are a terrible favourite and i will be looking to lay them heavily.

Russia were always going to be a threat in this but their performances in Beijing have been fantastic in comparison to their rivals. They are the only nation with all 3 runners safely thru to the final and go in as #4, #5 and #6 on times run so far. They have awesome strength in depth too with Migunova, Litvinova and Veshkurova all missing out on a place in the Russian individual team despite being good enough to run in the final themselves. Throw in Ekaterina Bikert, Russias best hurdler and its not inconcievable that Russia could qualify with a B team allowing a fully rested A team to run the final, a luxury i dont think the other teams can afford.

You have to be careful what you say these days but all i will say is that 7 Russians were caught by the IAAF in a pre-games sting which involved watching them for over a year and the Russians who have competed in Beijing have been very good.

I do not think the USA will have things all their own way at all and the Russians are very good value at 6.0.