Allyson Felix anchored the US women to gold in the 4×400-meter relay final Saturday, giving the Americans the gold in the event for the sixth straight Olympic Games. Running the second leg in the relay, Felix kept the US up there with the mighty Jamaicans, before English Gardner and Tori Bowie brought the baton, tightly clenched in their hands, home for gold.
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A surreal qualifying effort where they ran alone ensued – and was a success – before they took their place in the tight, inside lane in the final on Friday night in the Estadio Olimpico.
To absolutely no one’s surprise, Usain Bolt pulled off the hat trick to end all hat tricks – three sprinting gold medals in three consecutive Olympic games, aka the “Triple Triple” – by anchoring the men’s 4×100-meter relay, which ended in victory for the Jamaican team.
On Friday, they took full advantage of the second chance, becoming the first team to win the relay from lane 1 since 1972, when the US men did it. She had been through injury, the inability to defend her 200-meter title because she didn’t qualify at the USA trials and, almost, a DQ in the relay heats.
Claressa Shields had awarded herself a “C” after her first fight in Rio on Wednesday, but it was “A” for achievement on Friday after the US boxer punched through to a second successive Olympic middleweight final. They ran another preliminary race by themselves to qualify for the final by time.
She ran the fourth and final leg for the team, which won with a 41.01 second time, .35 seconds ahead of Jamaica.
Yes, the United States may have relay problems – see, the men’s 4×100, which flamed out again the night before – but this event certainly isn’t one of them. The team from America, anchored by Allyson Felix, won big in a great race on August 20. “Two golds, a silver, I can’t complain”, she said.
Merritt looked equally relieved after the men’s 4×400. He was caught in the tail wind of South African Wayde van Nierkerks world-record 400 run earlier in the week and settled for bronze.
As Felix had done minutes earlier, Merritt took a narrow lead and opened it way up.
In addition to her heavy duty Olympics hardware, Felix was able to earn a college degree from the University of Southern California, in her hometown of Los Angeles, despite deciding to compete professionally before college.
Lowe, 32, burst out laughing.
The U.S. women botched the exchange in both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics to give away potential medals in an event that was virtually made for the team with the deepest pool of sprinters.
Lowe, eventual victor Ruth Beitia of Spain, Bulgaria’s Mirela Demireva and Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic all cleared 6 feet, 5 1/2 inches as their final height.
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“We have really worked hard because we thought we could medal here”. Bowie is a burner in her own right, as she took bronze in the 200. “To be able to sit back and watch people step up and have unbelievable performances, it propelled everyone to do well”, she said.
