RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil's 4x100m women's relay runners have just missed the medals at the past two Olympics and three world championships -- but with a home Olympics looming next year, they believe their time as bridesmaids is almost done.
"I believe we can win a medal. We've been closing in for some years now" insisted Ana Claudia Lemos, South America's 100m record holder at 11.05sec -- still well adrift of 1988 Olympic champion Florence Griffith-Joyner's world mark of 10.49sec.
The Brazilian women served notice of their ability in making the relay final in London in 2012 and were set for silver at the 2013 world championships in Moscow until Franciela Krasucki and surprise inclusion Vanda Gomes fluffed their baton handover.
On that occasion, coach Katsuhico Nakaya reprimanded Gomes, since suspended for taking a banned substance, for claiming the squad lacked handover practice.
Rosangela Santos, Pan American Games champion in 2011, insisted at Thursday training at the Urca military facilities where England trained at last year's World Cup, that Brazil's women are hellbent on an Olympic podium finish.
"We are improving all the time. I've won other events but of course the Olympics are the tops," Washington-born Santos, 24, told AFP.
Having come to Brazil as a toddler, Santos, proudly sporting a Flamengo FC tattoo on her right leg, said she originally planned to go back to the United States, where her parents live.
"I came for a year originally, but then I finished junior school, got into athletics and that was that.
"I am Brazilian. I do feel something when I hear the US anthem -- but not at athletics meets. I'll go see NBA because I love Miami Heat. I'm also a Green Bay Packers fan for NFL and my baseball loyalties are with Baltimore Orioles," grinned Santos, who missed a 2008 Beijing relay bronze by 0.1sec.
To date, Brazil's women have had no success on the Olympic track and their sole field success was Maurren Maggi's 2008 long jump title.
"We've a way to go but what happened in Moscow we've put behind us. We're competitive," said Santos following a baton routine which involving pumping arms but with legs splayed still on the track.
Nakaya, whose mother's family originally hails from Osaka, told AFP: "The likes of the Jamaicans and the Americans are still a cut above -- but we are on the right lines with infrastructure improving through federal and sponsor support. So a podium is possible. We believe it."
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