Hey Fellas!
I find the selectors have been unfair to Darrel Brown!
The man clocked 10.13 in the Trials 100m final and placed 6th in front of Sorrilo so at least he should have been taken as part of the 6-man 4 x 100m relay squad!
Not taking anything away from Sorrillo as he's our new 200m champion with a 20.16 PB but how could the selectors put Sorrillo in front of Darrel on the 4 x 100m relay squad when Sorrillo only ran a 10.17 in the 100 final as compared to Darrel's 10.13 and also considering that Darrel already ran a 10.04 SB a few weeks ago?
Are things so tight with money that we can’t afford to take all of our best candidates for the 4 x 100m relay squad even though they all have the 'A' qualifying 100m standard?
Unless there are serious money issues I feel the NAAATT are being short sighted here by not taking Darrel along as a member of our 4 x 100m relay squad because the squad is stronger with Darrel on it than it is with Sorrillo.
Poor Darrel, he must be a bit heartbroken right now that he is not even going as part of the relay squad even though he is in our top 6 with the 100m ‘A’ standard but I hope he keeps strong and determined and with God’s blessings has an even better injury free season next year in time for the Olympics!
Fair is fair, the 10.04 DB ran was wind-aided. So it has to be a money thing.
Sorillo has his ticket anyway to run the 200m, so why not use him to run a bend on the relay when you already have Richard and Bledman as the top choices to run the straights, with Burns as a straightaway backup/reserve. Armstrong and Callender both have run strong turns in the past for the relay team, and together with Sorillo have run 200m with greater frequency than DB. Remember DB has not been running turns because of his hip injury.
Given that all the guys have sufficient though most have less experience than DB running relays for T&T, Brown remains the odd man out. Had he beaten Burns or placed 4th or 5th in the final he would have been on the team.
There remains the risk though that if more than 1 of Thompson, Armstrong, Bledman, or Sorillo (200) go far enough in their individual events, and god forbid come up fatigued or slightly injured then do we have enough reinforcements to supplement the team? The US team's WC relay pool includes 4th, 5th, 6th in their 100m trials, and is not even using 2nd and 3rd in the 200m (Dix won both sprints). They have the money and luxury to do so.