Yes, the United States may have relay problems see, the men’s 4×100, which flamed out again the night before but this certainly isn’t one of them.
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Brazil, who qualified after the British quartet were controversially disqualified during the heats, were loudly cheered in the final athletics event of the Games but finished last.
This years mens team was in the holding room when the women bobbled the stick. It took an entire day to win the right to defend their 2012 gold medal, but in front of the watching crowd they not only managed to edge out the 8th place Chinese team, but clock the fastest qualifying time of all the finalists.
Bartoletta set the tone of the race before passing the baton to Felix, but it was Gardner who broke the US away from the pack and allowed Bowie to bring it home to the finish line for gold.
The drawback was they were given the worst lane of all, Lane 1, which has the tightest corners.
It didn’t bother them. Bartoletta took gold in the long jump, with Felix taking silver in the 400 and Bowie taking silver in the 100 and bronze in the 200.
Likewise, Gardner passed it off cleanly to Allyson Felix on the second exchange.
“The toughest, without a doubt”, Felix said of her year. “We’ve each had a rocky road to get here and we came together to win the gold”. She now has six gold medals, improving her all-time record for women in Olympic track and field.
Want to congratulate the USA women’s 4×100 following their Olympic gold medal run?
It was not all perfection for the Americans though.
The last man to win both distance races in consecutive Olympics was Finnish great Lasse Viren at the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Games.
Beijing would bring another silver in the 200, and her first gold as part of the 4×400 relay.
The only other track and field medal up for grabs Friday was the men’s hammer throw with Tajikistan’s Dilshod Nazarov edging out Ivan Tsikhan of Belarus and Poland’s Wojciech Nowicki with a throw of 78.68m. Swept by him. Farah now has four Olympic gold medals and five world championship titles.
The native Mississippian will be bringing home a trio of colors; bronze, silver and, now, gold.
The time led the field by a significant margin but came up short of the team’s time (40.20) four years ago, which set an Olympic and world record that still stands. Although the runners did not hesitate to seize the opportunity to redeem themselves, Gardner did express regret that their success came at the cost of knocking the Chinese team out of the finals.
“I glanced. I mean, I realize we’re leading the medal count. I am so blessed”, she said afterwards. There was an upset as Vivian Cheruiyot powered past slumping favorite Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia and set an Olympic record of 14 minutes, 26.17 seconds.
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First thing I did is told the young guys, We got this, veteran Tyson Gay said after running the mens third leg. Youve got to be positive.
