The US on Saturday won their eighth consecutive Olympic women’s 4x400m relay crown to clinch their country’s 14th track and field gold medal of the Paris Games, while Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen claimed the 5,000m after his disappointment at 1,500m
A star-studded US quartet that included two-time Olympic 400m hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and 200m gold medalist Gabby Thomas powered home in 3 minutes, 15.27 seconds.
The Netherlands took silver in 3 minutes, 19.50 seconds with Britain grabbing bronze in 3 minutes, 19.72 seconds.
Photo: Reuters
“The US just has so much depth,” McLaughlin-Levrone said after the win. “Every woman from the trials to the final was going to do their job. I’m grateful that we were all able to do that, and come out with a gold medal.”
Shamier Little had got the US off to a flying start before handing off to McLaughlin-Levrone for the second leg.
The US team captain produced a scorching leg clocked at 47.71 seconds to give the defending champions a huge lead at the halfway mark.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Thomas then extended the US’ advantage before handing to Alexis Holmes, who crossed the line just outside breaking one of the oldest world records in athletics — 3 minutes, 15.17 seconds set by the former Soviet Union in 1988.
Thomas said the US women were determined to crown the final night on the track at the Stade de France with another gold.
“We were watching people win medals all week,” Thomas said. “I was so inspired watching my teammates do what they do. I know how hard it is to win a medal in track and field. It’s a very cut-throat sport, especially at this level.”
In the battle for silver, the Netherlands’ Femke Bol produced a barnstorming final leg of 48.62 seconds to snatch second place.
As the track and field program wrapped up, Ingebrigtsen bounced back from his unaccustomed fourth place in the 1,500m earlier in the week.
He made tactical errors in that race, but in the 5,000m, the Norwegian overcame the team tactics from his Ethiopian rivals to cross the line in 13 minutes, 13.66 seconds for gold with Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi taking silver.
“It’s just an amazing feeling. The contrast in sports is unique: When you succeed, and sometimes you have a bad experience,” Ingebrigtsen said. “It’s amazing to have this.”
In a lightning-fast men’s 800m, Emmanuel Wanyonyi held off world champion Marco Arop of Canada. It was the fifth Olympics in a row that a Kenyan has won the event.
Wanyonyi, 20, clocked a personal best of 1 minute, 41.19 seconds for victory, making him the third fastest man in history, and Arop took silver just one-hundredth of a second behind in a North American record.
Pre-race favourite Djamel Sedjati of Algeria claimed bronze with 1 minute, 41.50 seconds, and shrugged off a raid by anti-doping investigators on the Olympic Village room of his coach earlier this week.
“Nothing [important] happened. These are things that athletes can face,” Sedjati said after Saturday’s race.
In a rare athletics gold for New Zealand, Hamish Kerr won the men’s high jump following a dramatic jump-off against the US’ Shelby McEwen after both cleared 2.36m.
Masai Russell of the US snatched victory in the women’s 100m hurdles, edging out France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela who clinched the host nation’s first athletics medal of the Games.
Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola broke the Olympic record to win the men’s marathon as reigning champion Eliud Kipchoge dropped out before the end.
The dominant US finished the track and field program with 14 golds, topped off by wins for both their 4x400m relay teams. Kenya were a distant second with four golds.
The women’s marathon yesterday was the last athletics event.
China underlined their total domination of Olympic diving by winning their eighth gold out of eight events, as Cao Yuan triumphed in the men’s 10m platform.
The Chinese also swept the board in the table tennis for the sixth time in Olympic history, with China’s women overpowering Japan in the team event.
Away from the sport, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said he would not see a third term, declaring “new times are calling for new leaders.”
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