Japan Outran US in Men's 400-m Relay

We can't say whether it was a sign of downfall on the part of US field athletics or Japan's upsurge in speed running. Whichever the reason, it happened at long last for Japan to beat US in men's relay - something I personally could not have ever imagined happen.

In the second week of the Rio Olympics, August 19, Japan entered a team of four speed runners - Ryota Yamagata, Shota Iizuka, Yoshihide Kiryu and Cambridge Asuka - to the men's 400-m relay in hopes of opening a new page in Japan's history of relay races. The team had broken earlier in the elimination round Asia's all time record.

In the final race on August 19, the anchor Cambridge Asuka clocked 37:60 seconds, bettering the Asian record marked in the ealier elimination round by 0.08 second, to finish second to Usain Bolt and his Jamaican running mates who marked 37.27 seconds for the gold medal. The US team came third but was disqualied, yielding to the Canadians who timed 37.64 seconds.

The amazing part of the story is that all but Japan had teams of speed runners potentially capable of clocking 9x seconds in 100 meters and that Japan had only to rely on its unique method of underhand baton passing.

It worked beautifully well in the relay that day as other teams, passing the batons upperhand, visibly lost a few splits of a second at each passing.

All the four in the Japanese team are reportedly capable of beating the "wall of 10 seconds" in any moment - suggesting we have good reasons to hope for a team in 2020 fast enough to outrun Jamaicans - not to mention Americans.

With two days to go in the Rio Olympics, Japan has already collected 41 medals, more than ever before. The wind is blowing straight for Japan with the next games slated four years later. (Nathan Shiga)