Butterfingers drop U.S. men, women out of 400 relays

BEIJING (AP) — Clank. The American men dropped the baton.

Ping. The American women did, too.

Dang. This Olympic track meet is turning into a downright disaster for the Stars & Stripes.

Darvis Patton and Tyson Gay misconnected on the final pass in preliminaries of the 400-meter relay Thursday. Then, Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams did the same thing for the women's team.

Two American gold-medal contenders didn't even advance to the finals. Two more chances for the U.S. track team to turn around a disappointing Olympics were lost on the rain-soaked track at the Bird's Nest.

"I take full blame for it," Gay said of his bad exchange with Patton. "I kind of feel I let them down."

The drop means Gay, the defending world champion in the 100 and 200, will leave Beijing not just empty-handed, but without even running in a final.

And Williams will now go down as the American involved in not one but two faulty Olympic exchanges that cost her team medals. In 2004, she misconnected with Marion Jones in the final and the Americans were disqualified for making the exchange outside the 20-meter handoff zone.

"If people want to assess the blame to me, that's OK," Williams said. "I mean, I can take whatever it is that people are going to dish out. We had good chemistry. The hand was back there. She was there. I don't know what happened."

Had they advanced in either race, the Americans may not have been favored to win gold considering the world records Jamaica's Usain Bolt has set over the past week at the Bird's Nest and the way Jamaica has dominated the women's sprints as well.

Still, they would have been an interesting races.

Not anymore.

Moments before the relay, American Allyson Felix finished second behind Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown in the women's 200, adding her name to a long list of U.S. favorites who have disappointed.

Felix (200), Gay (100, 200), Bernard Lagat (1,500), Brad Walker (pole vault) and Reese Hoffa (shot put) are American 2007 world champions who failed to win gold in their events this year. Of that list, only Felix got any kind of medal. Lolo Jones and Sanya Richards were other American favorites who came up short.

Now add the men's relay team, which failed to reach the Olympic final for the first time since 1912. And the women, who missed for the first time since 1948.