Aussie's brutal blast for Rohan Browning over 'amateur hour' gaffe

Retired Aussie runner John Steffensen has offered a brutal assessment of Rohan Browning's fall in the 4x100m relay semi-final at the Commonwealth Games, describing the blunder as 'amateur'.

The Aussie men appeared to be on track to qualify for the final until Browning stumbled and fell as he was about the receive the baton from Jack Hale for the final leg of Saturday's race.

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Browning, who finished sixth in the 100m final early in the Games, tried to keep his balance but fell to the track in dramatic scenes, ruling Australia out of the race.

The Aussies were absolutely gutted after missing a place in the final, with Hale consoling a devastated Browning afterwards.

While the majority of fan and commentator reactions were that of sympathy for Browning, former 400m star Steffensen told it like he saw it.

Steffenson, who won gold in the 400m at the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and silver in the 4x400m relay at the Athens Olympics in 2004, said he couldn't understand why Browning was pushing the limits given it was only a semi-final and Australia looked assured of advancing.

“If that was a final, I’d kind of accept it because you really want to push your relay change zone passovers,” he said on Channel 7's coverage.

“You really want to push them out a bit, you want to take a bit more risk because you’re running against the best, or some of the best in the world, in the Commonwealth.

“But that was amateur hour last night. To see what happened with Rohan, I don’t know what was going through his brain.

“Accidents happen, mistakes happen track and field, yes, I get it.

“But it’s one of those things, I’ve done it (many) times in training. Sometimes you want to push, you really push the barriers and the angle you want to come out of your drive because that’s how you go fast.

“In training you sort of go low, low and you will sort of work your way back up. Then you find a comfortable position that you can take off from.”

Rohan Browning gutted after devastating race fall

Tamsyn Manou also said in commentary: "I can’t believe it. I cannot believe it. A disaster for the Australians. I’ve never seen anything quite like it to be truthful.

“That was awful. He looks devastated.

"Rohan would not have been able to do a lot of this training, he would have been focusing on getting his body right. He just really stumbled when he took his acceleration phase.”

Browning apologised to his teammates after the race, saying he was “gutted”.

“I’m so sorry. I know these boys put in so much work. In my years in athletics, nothing like this has ever happened and, hopefully, it never happens again," he said.

“I just caught my toe and slipped. It has never happened before in training or in races.”

Hale said: “It’s a relay. There are so many variables and these things happen. It is what it is."

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