US long jumper Jeff Henderson, a favourite for gold, failed to even make the halfway cut in the final, where Briton Greg Rutherford won with a leap of 8.41m.

By Tim Hill and Agencies/theguardian.com

Bershawn Jackson gave an honest assessment after his 400m hurdles heat last Saturday: “It felt bad from the beginning.” He could have been describing the American track team’s performance at the 2015 World Championships.
After five days of competition in Beijing, the American medal total stands at a disappointing nine: one gold, three silvers, five bronze. A slew of US favourites have crashed out. Some might describe their output as poor. Olympic hero Michael Johnson preferred to call it atrocious.
What’s gone wrong? The US team has topped the medals table in five straight World Championships, but it’s in serious trouble just now. After five days, the US currently lie fifth, just ahead of Germany and far behind Kenya, which has 11 medals and six golds, even after missing out, surprisingly, in the men’s marathon.
The American tale of woe is long and varied. Jackson, a two-time 400m hurdles world champion, posted the fastest time in the world this year, 48.09 seconds at a Diamond League meet in Doha in May.
He finished last in his heat. Long jumper Jeff Henderson, a favourite for gold, jumped 8.54m earlier this year, but failed to even make the halfway cut in the final, where Greg Rutherford won with a leap of 8.41m.
Jenny Simpson, who won 1500m gold in Daegu in 2011, finished 11th on Tuesday after running the last lap with one bare foot when her shoe came off. Galen Rupp could only manage fifth in the 10,000m. Michael Tinsley clipped eight hurdles in the 400m hurdles final and came last.
“I’ll get over it,” Simpson said, nursing a bloodied and painful foot, two years after taking silver and four years after her golden day in Daegu.
“(I just) got unlucky. Tonight wasn’t a fair fight, and it’s no fault of mine or whatever, but it’s still unlucky. I didn’t get a fair shot to try to podium, but that’s sports.”
The Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing has never been all that friendly to the Americans. At the 2008 Olympics, the US team captured what it considered to be a sub-par 23 medals, and despite topping the medals table, its performance led to a revamp of various aspects of USA Track & Field’s operation.
It worked a treat in London four years later: the American team performed beautifully, and won 29 medals including nine golds. Aries Merritt, Ashton Eaton, Allyson Felix, Sandra Richards-Ross: Olympic stars, all of them.
The team won 25 medals at the Worlds in Moscow two years ago, but this time they’re well off that pace with five days to go. Even when the Americans do win medals, it’s not always quite like they drew it up.
In the women’s 10,000m, Molly Huddle was cruising in for what she thought would be an easy third-place finish but got passed at the line by her sprinting teammate, Emily Infeld.
The country’s only gold medal came in shot put from Joe Kovacs. But medal contender Christian Cantwell had to withdraw because of back spasms.
“Hopefully, we have a big bang-up in the last (four) days,” Simpson said.
There are lots of chances to make this better. The relay teams should prosper, too—despite their long and ugly history of dropping batons. But so far, the most common feeling for the Americans has been shock and upset.
“I overcame so much the last few years and I just felt like this was the one. It’s a disappointing race for me. Very disappointing,” Jackson said. “There are no words I can say about how disappointed I am,” Henderson offered, after finishing ninth. “It’s a hard pill to swallow.”