On Thursday, the ninth of August, the Australian Men’s 4x400m relay team will line-up in the heats. In recent times the this team has had much success, winning silver at the 2004 Olympics and more recently bronze at the 2009 World Championships.
They won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
In the last month, however, most of the publicity surrounding this team has been focused on the selection of World Junior silver medallist Steve Solomon in the individual 400m over the man who won the Olympic trials, John Steffensen.
Both men had posted “B” qualifying times and as such their selection was at the discretion of the selectors.
After threatening to withdraw from the games all together, Steffensen has since come out and stated that he will run in the 4x400m for Australia.
But, is he even one of our fastest four runners?
While Australia qualified 13th for the Olympics, this standard is based on the average of the best two performances from each country in the qualifying period. If you look at just a the single best performance over that period, Australia slips to 15th out of the 16 teams competing.
With the top three in each heat and the next two quickest times going through to the final, Australia can not afford to rest its best athletes during the heats. We need our best team to be running just to qualify for the final, and Steffensen, on current form, is not in our top four runners.
Since running in the 45s twice in the domestic season, Steffensen injured himself at the Stawell gift and has not been in the same form since, running 46.59 and 46.11 in his two races.
Meanwhile, Solomon, Offereins, Cole and Thomas went to Daegu to qualify the team. I am told they ran splits of 45.2, 45.2 45.5 and 45.5 respectively.
Since then Solomon has run a personal best over 400m and made the 400m final at the Olympics, Cole ran a personal best over 400 hurdles at the Olympics and Thomas ran a season’s best at the Olympics.
On those relay splits from May, Steffensen would struggle to make the team, and since then three of the four boys have shown they are in better form then they were in Japan.
If it wasn’t for those four boys we would not even have a 4x400m relay team at the Olympics. They have all made themselves available to run for Australia.
Thomas and Offereins were part of the medal winning team from 2009 and Cole and Offereins were part of our 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medal winning team, that Steffensen made himself unavailable for (note that Joel Milburn, the other member of the relay squad for London, was in both of these relays).
It will be interesting to see who the selectors pick for the 4x400m relay, and even more interesting to see what times they each run and if the selectors were correct.
For Australia to have the best chance to medal, the team should be Solomon, Offereins, Cole and Thomas.
Jocelyn McLennan
Roar Guru
and you wonder why John reacts the way he does....that was shameless disgracefull baiting...he handled it with dignity...
JVGO
Guest
The post run interview was a disgrace, as just about everything channel numb has done for the broadcasts. They have a lot to answer for particularly for the over emphasis and estimation on gold, gold, gold.
Jocelyn McLennan
Roar Guru
You are a class act Cam for having the bravery to admit that...Class people are always the first to admit that may be wrong or have misjudged something....it is pity so many others have not retracted such vitrolic statements towards Steff especially after Steve Hooker verified the racist treatment....so many people had bagged John for "playing the race card' when he made the statements ..so later when the truth comes out none of those bloggers on this site retracted those comments....shame....classy or you Cam to make that statement...John was very hard on himself
Jocelyn McLennan
Roar Guru
Chris I am glad someone else saw that and John was very gracious in not accepting the bait....
Jocelyn McLennan
Roar Guru
Exactly Tim....you are on a hiding to nothing when you get mid pack in a 4x4 and have to endure that traffic in the change zone
Jocelyn McLennan
Roar Guru
james you must have been watching a difference race to me as Steff did not have a clean run...no-one does in a 4x4 if you get back in the field as the change over zone is a dog fight for all....you obviously did not see the push and shove from the Dominican Republic....and if you were a student of relays you would know that you do not always put your fastest last in fact quite often they run first to set up being in the front bunch to avoid the traffic in the change zone...hence why Solomen ran first......it appears nothing short of Steff breaking the worl record would appease all the vitriole and haters....even after Steve Hooker has come out and verified that the racial abuse DID happen in Beijing everyone still wants to berate him.....and dont forget there were 3 other runner in that relay team...but no, the headline still has to read the Steffensen didn't perform....I still think they all did the best they could...
Seiran
Roar Guru
Offereins let the team down? Sure, he was the slowest runner out there, but he was only a little over half a second off the pace of your beloved Stef, who as anchor should have run the quickest to bring the team home. Instead he ran the second slowest. Oh, and then he had the tenacity to make out he was carrying other members of the team. The guy is not a team player. I'm glad he won't be around for the next Olympics.
Cam Baker
Roar Rookie
Well, time for me to eat humble pie and say that Steffensen ran a faster split than I expected him to and he totally justified his place in the team.
jameswm
Guest
Matt they could DQ the team-mate, but not the one he was doing it for. I'm taliing about individual races, not a relay of course. Take an 800 or 1500 for example. Kenya might have two top runners, and send out a 3rd to impede a rival to stop them getting through. Hopefully no one would do that, but it's possible. Jocelyn you haven't been paying attention. Those reinstatements have happened all Olympics, including where runners were impeded a long way from home. No, no one can say they would have got through. But no one could say they wouldn't have either.
jameswm
Guest
Steff had a clean run. Cole was the one who did better - a faster split with a lot more traffic. Steff sat at the back of the pack but never challenged them. I was watching thinking right John, here's your chance for redemption in the eyes of the public. But it never came. He's obviously not in the shape he was in February, and I don't know how much the Stawell gift injury has to do with that.
matt h
Guest
+1
Jocelyn McLennan
Roar Guru
Tim I think Eric knew they were up against it in that heat and had to throw in the best team straight and since BJ was in such good form...yes it would been heartbreaking for Joel...
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
Poor interview by Channel Nine, probably trying to provoke controversy, and a poor 4 x 400m relay run.
Matt F
Roar Guru
"you could send one team-mate to knock over your main rival and there’d be nothing they could do about it." Actually they could disqualify you, as they did the Kenyans. I hardly think that an athlete, or a relay team, is going to deliberately get disqualified just so that another competitor/team that they don't like is taken out.
jameswm
Guest
I watched it on Fox. They interviewed the runners in order. The questions to Steff were a disgrace.
B.A Sports
Guest
I Agree. I am not his biggest fan, but I thought he handled the post race interview pretty well. To aks him one question about if he was prepareed for cricitism was ok, but to go on about it wasn't really appropriate for a post race interview. Didn't see Hackett or Rooney asking those sorts of questions beside the pool?
Australian Rules
Guest
If Steffenson never ran for Australia again, the nation would hardly go into mourning. The guy will be remembered not for his ability, but for his trash-talking, his lack of grace and his look-at-me look-at-me obsessiveness.
Hoy
Roar Guru
I assumed there must be more... He handled the questions well. Was disappointed the free to air channel didn't see fit to show the whole team being questioned about their run.
Tim Renowden
Expert
The Ch.9 interview was actually just an edited version of what was shown on Foxtel, where they interviewed all four runners. Shameless tabloid journalism? Digging for controversy? Channel 9? Say it ain't so! ;)
Tim Renowden
Expert
Look, they all tried hard, and they were in a tough heat, but the 3:01.58 the team ran in Daegu in May would've comfortably qualified them for the final, so it's disappointing that they couldn't replicate that performance (that team was Solomon, Offereins, Cole and Tristan Thomas). They ran 3:03.17 last night and I reckon most of the time difference was not from lack of speed per se, but more from the poor positioning of the team in heavy traffic which really does mess with your rhythm.