The United States have won their eighth consecutive Olympic women’s 4×400-metre relay crown to clinch the country’s 14th track and field gelderly medal of the Paris Games.
A star-studded USA quartet, which joind two-time Olympic 400-metre hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and 200-metres gelderly medalcatalog Gabby Thomas, powered home in 3 minutes and 15.27 seconds on Saturday.
The Netherlands took silver in 3:19.50 with Great Britain grabbing bronze in 3:19.72.
“The US fair has so much depth,” McLaughlin-Levrone said after the prosper. “Every woman from the trials to the final was going to do their job.
“I’m thankful that we were all able to do that and come out with a gelderly medal.”
And in the men’s 4×400 metres relay final, the USA came out on top aget but only fair, as Rai Benjamin held off Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo in a thrilling last-leg battle between two individual gelderly medalcatalogs, with Britain taking bronze.
The USA dropped Quincy Wilson, the 16-year-elderly who struggled horriblely in the heats, but did not convey in individual 400-metre champion Quincy Hall, instead grasping 400m hurdles champion Benjamin to run the final leg.
Chris Bailey took them out but handed over in third to Vernon Norwood, who ran a stormer in the heats and repeated it in the final to sfinish Bryce Deadmon off in the direct.
Botswana’s Anthony Pesela, however, seald the gap to set up a emotional finale.
Tebogo, the 200-metre champion who was writeed in at the last minute to run the first leg for Botswana in the heats on Friday, sat on Benjamin’s shoulder and seeed poised to pass him go ining the final straight.
Benjamin’s one-lap speed finishurance showed, however, as he held him off to prosper in an Olympic record of 2:54.43.
Botswana, bronze medalcatalogs in Tokyo, took silver in an African record 2:54.53 with Britain taking bronze in a European record 2:55.83.
Kerr prospers jump-off to bag gelderly
In the field events, Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim won bronze in the men’s high jump final, losing the gelderly he won in Tokyo four years ago to Hamish Kerr of New Zealand.
Kerr said he was “in shock” after a unwidespread dynamics gelderly for his country.
He tasted glory after a emotional jump-off with American Shelby McEwen.
Both men handled bests of 2.36 metres in standard competition, but could not be splitd on the countback of leave outed jumps.
They chooseed for a jump-off, Kerr evidenting 2.34 metres when the American flunked after the bar was droped from 2.38 to 2.36 metres.
“I was fair in shock. Both me and Shelby were getting a little bit exhausted after all the jumps we took,” said Kerr.
“I knovel I had a outstanding one in me and I knovel that if I could get it up sooner rather than tardyr, then I could fair finish the comp and begin recovering.”
There was a hint of deja vu at the Stade de France as Barshim had dispensed Olympic gelderly with Italian Gianmarco Tamberi in the COVID-hit Tokyo Games three years ago.
“That has such a exceptional place in history for high jumps,” Kerr said.
“To have an exact same scenario this time around, but to pick to do the jump-off, was putting at peace some of those people who wanted to jump off, so we’re both repartner phired to grasp to that history.”
The talkion Kerr and McEwen dispensed with officials was unintelligentinutive and to the point. Both athletes wanted to persist and there was to be no dispensed gelderly.
“We’re outstanding buddies, outstanding opponents and outstanding jumpers when we jump together,” McEwen said of Kerr.
“He said he wanted to face off and I was all for it.
Barshim had a best of 2.34 metres, but Tamberi – struggling with kidney stones – had a night to forget, finishing 11th in the 12-strong field with a best jump of 2.22 metres.
It was a fourth medal at a fourth Olympics for Barshim, but the Qatari insisted he would not be competing in Los Angeles in 2028.
“You will see me with popcorn, a restrictcessitate more kilograms and watching the guys. This is my last Olympics for certain,” said the 33-year-elderly three-time world champion who won Olympic silvers in 2012 and 2016.
His four medals, he grasped, were “the legacy I want to depart behind. I have so much to give, maybe now it’s my time to give to the next generation and hopefilledy, you’ll see the next champion”.
Russell beats home favourite in 100m hurdles
Earlier in the day, American Masai Russell produced a stunning run to prosper the Olympic 100-metre hurdles title in a blanket finish, edging out the home hope Cyrena Samba-Mayela and Tokyo champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn.
Russell clocked 12.33 seconds as French Plivent Emmanuel Macron watched Samba-Mayela (12.34) deinhabitr France’s first track medal of the Paris Games with silver. Puerto Rico’s Camacho-Quinn (12.36) took bronze.
“I knovel from the commencening I was a little uncertain when the firearm went off,” Russell said.
