The U.S. women's 4x100 relay team spent Thursday morning waiting on the result of an appeal after Allyson Felix and English Gardner failed to make their baton exchange in their preliminary heat.
Jury of Appeals decided Felix was obstructed. USA relay will re-run alone at 8 pm local time tonight. Have to top 42.70 to reach final.
— Paul Myerberg (@PaulMyerberg) August 18, 2016
Felix claimed she felt contact and the video review showed a Brazilian runner's arm bumping into Felix as she attempted to make the second exchange with Gardner. The Americans appealed their dropped baton on account of the contact and the decision was made by the IAAF Jury of Appeals that contact had caused Felix to miss the exchange and drop the baton.
"It just knocked me off," Felix said to NBC. "I mean, I was tripping, but I don't know, I was still trying to get it off, but I just...I couldn't."
As a result, the Americans will have the chance to run their heat again at 8 p.m. local time in Brazil. It is a circumstance that has never happened before in the Olympics.
A relay time trial has never happened before at the Olympics, per historian @bambam1729.
— Sara Germano (@germanotes) August 18, 2016
In order to advance, the Americans will need to run a 42.70 or better in their re-run to make the finals. The final will be run Friday at 9:15 p.m. ET.
"We're going to regroup, get ourselves together and go out there and be ready to compete in the final," Gardner said per USA Today.
Coming into the event, the U.S. was among the gold medal favorites having taken home gold at the 2012 Games in London.
