Jamaica's Quarrie shrugs off US relay threat

Jamaican sprint legend Donald Quarrie shrugged off America's challenge to his country's Olympic 100m men's relay title on Monday, but admitted the women's race was tough to call. Quarrie, who won 200m gold at the 1976 Olympic Games and now works as the team's technical director, insisted that Jamaica's men, the world record-holders with 37.04sec, remain the team to beat. Last Friday in Monaco, the American team of Trell Kimmons, Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay and Ryan Bailey ran a world-leading 37.61sec. "We saw the USA run, and we are happy that they didn't break the world record," joked Quarrie. "But we know that with the men, we are still strong." Jamaica will have the same four runners in London -- Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Nesta Carter and Michael Frater -- who set the world mark at the Daegu world championships in 2011. Asafa Powell, who was injured and could not run in South Korea, is also in line for a place on the team. On the women's side, the United States, with Carmelita Jeter and Allyson Felix spearheading the team, beat 2004 Olympic champions Jamaica in Daegu last year. But Jamaica, with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown in the team, will provide strong opposition as they look to make amends for a baton mix-up in the 2008 final. "With the women, we saw the USA team run, they made a lot of mistakes, so I think it's going to come down to the execution, no mistakes," said Quarrie. "It's going to be interesting, like the entire Olympics, where we are expected to do well." Meanwhile, Powell, Olympic 100m champion Fraser-Pryce, Olympic 400m hurdles champion Melaine Walker, former world 100m hurdles champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton, and 400m hurdler Kaliese Spencer are the only athletes yet to join the team's mandatory training camp at the University of Birmingham. Team manager Ludlow Watts said some athletes had been busy with various meets across Europe. "We expect everybody to be in by Monday," he added.