American relay teams win gold, Reese captures long jump title, on final day of track worlds

US picks up 3 more golds on final day of worlds

BERLIN — LaShawn Merritt raised the metallic blue baton high in the air as he crossed the finish line. Sanya Richards went with a simple flicking motion.

Both fine ways to celebrate a gold medal.

Bottom line? Both still had the stick in their hands at the finish.

The Americans got the baton around the track in the finals Sunday, leading to a 1,600-meter relay sweep to close out the world championships.

“Did you think anything less?” said Angelo Taylor, who ran a strong lead leg.

Well, the U.S. relays have had their share of foibles. This weekend at the worlds, the men’s 400 team was disqualified for making an exchange outside the allowable zone, and then the women’s squad didn’t finish after Muna Lee pulled up with a hamstring injury.

It all happened on the heels of the Olympics in Beijing, when the two sprint relay teams dropped the stick.

The Americans, though, had sticky fingers Sunday. That baton wasn’t going anywhere.

“We don’t want to harp on it,” Richards said. “I think sometimes if you put too much thought into it, it makes it too much of a challenge. We all know you get that stick and you have 400 meters to do whatever. We don’t put too much emphasis on that handoff.”

Merritt, Kerron Clement, Allyson Felix and Richards each won a second title Sunday at the world championships.

Felix, though, might have had a third. She was scheduled to run in the finals of the 400 relay before Lee went down with an injury.

“I’m definitely disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to run in the (400 relay) final,” Felix said. “But this was quite easy. I feel like we ran very well.”

Against the Jamaicans, too, which hasn’t happened often.

But the 1,600 relay isn’t exactly the Jamaicans’ specialty.

No, that would be the sprints.

In that department, the Caribbean island again dominated the Americans. Jamaica won five of the six sprint events at worlds, a streak that was only interrupted when Felix won her third straight world title in the 200.

The Americans did top the medal standings, winning 10 gold and 22 overall. That’s down from two years ago in Osaka, Japan, when the U.S. captured 26. Jamaica and Russia were next as each had 13 overall medals.

“Any other team in the world who had (our) kind of linescore would be going back to ticker-tape parades,” said Doug Logan, CEO of USA Track and Field.

But this is the U.S., and expectations are loftier.

“I take on that expectation happily,” Logan said.

Even when Usain Bolt isn’t running, he still picks up honors. Bolt received a huge piece of the Berlin Wall on Sunday.

The Jamaican leaves the championships with two more world records as he obliterated his marks in the 100 and 200, shaving .11 seconds off each. He also won another crown in the 400 relay.

“The world championships were an outstanding event for me,” Bolt said.

No one could challenge him, but the Americans still remain hopeful.

“We’re going to chase him and we’re going to catch him,” Logan said. “He may be 43 by the time we catch him, but we’re going to catch him.”

American Brittney Reese’s title in the long jump came as a surprise even to her. She beat defending champion Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia with a jump of 23 feet, 3 1/2 inches.

“I know everybody was banking on (Lebedeva),” Reese said. “This is exciting.”

Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele used a furious kick down the back stretch to unseat American runner Bernard Lagat as world champion in the 5,000.

It was a gritty performance by Lagat, who competed with four stitches near his left ankle after being stepped on by a spike in a preliminary round.

With his ankle numbed up to dull the pain, Lagat bolted with the finish line in sight, pulling neck-and-neck with Bekele. But Bekele surged ahead with 30 meters left for the win — his second of the nine-day championships after the 10,000.

“I gave it all I had,” said Lagat, who also won bronze in the 1,500. “I really wanted to retain my title, and wanted to defend it really, really bad. There was nothing more important than for me to defend my title. However, after the finish, after I realized that I lost to a great champion, I wasn’t disappointed.”

In other finals on the last day of the championships:

— Bai Xue won the women’s marathon to give China its first gold medal. Kara Goucher of the United States came in 10th.

— Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway won his first world championship javelin title after finishing second twice. Thorkildsen’s throw was 295-1.

— Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa won the men’s 800 meters.

— Natalia Rodriguez was disqualified for pushing another runner to the ground in the women’s 1,500, so the title went to Maryam Jamal of Bahrain. That bumped U.S. runner Shannon Rowbury up to bronze.

The 1,600 relays were one thing that went exactly according to plan for the Americans.

“We expect greatness,” Jeremy Wariner said. “That’s what we did today. We showed greatness.”