United States out of women’s 400 relay at world championships after Muna Lee injured

US out of women’s 400 relay at worlds

BERLIN — A day after the U.S. men were disqualified, the women’s 400-meter relay failed to make it into the final at the world championships after Muna Lee pulled up injured during a baton pass.

Lee had trouble taking the baton on the third leg Saturday, then grabbed her left hamstring and fell to the track. The men’s team was disqualified from its heat for handing the baton outside the designated zone.

At the Beijing Olympics, both U.S. teams also were eliminated in the heats.

Jamaica had no trouble making it to the final. Shelly-Ann Fraser, the 100 champion, will be looking for her second gold medal.

The absences left Jamaica as the favorite in both finals, with Usain Bolt looking for his third gold and world record later Saturday.

With Jamaica already leading 3-1 in the sprints, it extended the country’s overwhelming sprint domination over the Americans, dating from last year’s Beijing Games last year.

The American women were running a smooth race until Lee struggled to get a clean handoff from Alexandria Anderson, the second of four runners. Once she did, a sudden pain came over Lee.

“Just when she pushed off going around that turn something happened,” Anderson said.

Lee was taken off the track on a stretcher, with ice on her leg.

It ruined the ambition of 200-meter champion Allyson Felix, who was trying to equal her accomplishment from two years ago when she won three golds at the worlds in Osaka, Japan.

Leadoff runner Lauryn Williams said her team had been poised for greatness.

“It is really unfortunate,” Williams said. “We get here to the big one, the big dance, and know that we have a team that’s capable of world-record pace. And then not even get a chance to try for gold, much less a world record.”

Earlier Saturday, Abel Kirui and Emmanuel Mutai made sure Kenya kept an edge over Ethiopia, finishing 1-2 in the men’s marathon.

The intense African rivalry for medal supremacy might well have been decided under the Brandenburg Gate when the two Kenyans ran Tsegay Kebede of Ethiopia into submission in the fastest marathon in world championship history.

“We ran as a team,” said Mutai, who had to let his teammate go to finish in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 54 seconds because an upset stomach reduced him to vomiting over the final stages.

The finish gave Kenya three golds and eight overall, and left Ethiopia with one gold and five overall. Later, defending champion Meseret Defar will try to make it a tight medal race again in the women’s 5,000 final, which Ethiopia could sweep.

Most eyes, though, will be centered on Bolt. So far, he’s set world records in the 100 and 200 at the worlds. On Saturday, he will need a little help from his Jamaican friends.

And he didn’t waste the 23rd-birthday present he got from his teammates when they qualified for the final. Bolt sat out the heats, happy to give autographs to fans.

On top of that, Bolt received a second gold medal on the stands and accepted a second check of $100,000 for a world record, bringing his total to $320,000 in one week. There still is $180,000 at stake if the relay team sets another world record on the way to a third title.

Then again, that total would have to be shared with his teammates.

Other finals Saturday include the men’s long jump and pole vault, and the women’s hammer.