The American women’s 4×400-meter relay team was disqualified from the preliminary round at the world championships in track and field on Saturday after its third and fourth runners in the four-lap race bungled the baton exchange.

The championships are being held in Budapest, Hungary.

Quanera Hayes missed on several attempts to hand the stick to anchor runner Alexis Holmes. When they finally did make the exchange, they were outside of the legal passing zone.

It is the latest chapter in a long stretch of problems for Team USA in the relays, though a mishap in this longer relay is relatively rare because none of the runners are going as fast and there isn’t as much traffic.

With runners such as Allyson Felix, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Dalilah Muhammad leading the way in recent years, this has been as close to a sure thing as there is for the United States, which has won this race at seven of the past eight world championships.

This year, the U.S. team won’t even make the final.

The American men and women were due to race in the 4×100-meter relay Saturday evening.

The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.

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