WORLD TRACK AND FIELD NOTES : Humbled U.S. Sprinters Resolute After Down Performance

GOTEBORG, Sweden —  Not only had the U.S. men’s 400-meter relay team won all four previous World Championships before Saturday’s debacle at Ullevi Stadium, it had set or tied world records in each. Where have you gone, Carl Lewis?

One week after only one U.S. man advanced as far as the semifinals in the 100 meters, Jon Drummond could see the headlines after the U.S. sprint relay team was eliminated in the first round of qualifying because he and Tony McCall botched the handoff between the second and third legs.

“What is happening to American sprinters?” he said, asking reporters before they could ask him.

Then, answering, he said, “When you get to the Olympic Games next summer, you’ll see.”

Perhaps he is right. Perhaps Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell will be healthy.

Or perhaps Drummond will finally realize the potential that he believes he has.

He said his only problem Saturday was that he was so fast that he caught McCall off guard. “I got slungshot around the curve,” Drummond said.

He also said the only team that can beat the United States in the sprint relay is the United States, which has been true in the past.

The only years in which they did not win the event in the Olympics, 1912, ’60 and ‘88, the Americans disqualified themselves by either passing the baton poorly or running out of their zones.

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When Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan returned home after her second-place finish in the 3,000 in the 1993 World Championships at Stuttgart, Germany, she was met by 40,000 fans at the airport.

How many will greet her after she won the 5,000 here Saturday? “How many people are in Ireland?” she asked.

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Portugal’s Fernanda Ribeiro, who won the 10,000 Wednesday, finished second in the 5,000 three days later.

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Spain’s Martin Fiz won the men’s marathon in 2:11:41. Dionisio Ceron gave Mexico its first medal with his second-place finish.