by Larry Eder
LaShawn Merritt, 2011 WC 4 x 400m, photo by PhotoRun.net
The men’s 4 x 400m was a fascinating race! Elliott Denman, our man for the relays, gives RBR readers a real view of the agility and talent of one LaShawn Merritt!
By ELLIOTT DENMANDAEGU, KOREA – Arhur Murray, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly….LaShawn Merritt.Yes, dancemasters all.LaShawn Merritt, 2011 WC 4 x 400m, gold, photo by PhotoRun.net
Add Merritt’s “‘Virginia Shuffle” to all the great moves of the stars.His was the quick sidestep that freed him from a major traffic jamand gave him the daylight to barrel down the homestretch
and give Team USA a dramatic 2:59.31 victory in the men’s 4×400-meter
relay at the 13th World Championships of Track and Field Friday night at
Daegu Stadium.LaShawn Merritt, 2011 WC 4 x 400m, photo by PhotoRun.net
“I was boxed in and had to do something, the finish line
was coming up on us pretty fast,” said the Virginian who’d taken the
silver medal in the individual 400 meters – just back of Grenada’s
Kirani James – at the Worlds two days earlier.Well, Grenada had its golden guy, James, and the
sixth-placer in the 400, Rondell Bartholomew. But no else, so that
counted them out..Everything was riding on a come-through performance by
LaShawn Merritt – the 2008 Olympic and 2009 World champion in the 400 –
and he did not disappoint.“LaShawn was cool, calm and collected,” said USA head coach
Vin Lananna. “He’s an old pro at this. He can handle situations. And,
one more time, he came through for the team.”“We’ve all worked too hard to get here; I wasn’t about to
let this one get away, I wasn’t going to disappoint my teammates,” said
Merritt.Greg Nixon, 2011 WC 4 x 400m, gold medalist, photo by PhotoRun.net
Belgium took a first-leg lead (400 fifth-placer Jonathan
Borlee’s 43.87) and then Jamaica took over, leading at the second
(1:29.67) and third (2:14.63) exchanges, with South Africa and USA in
hot pursuit. Rounding the final turn, South Africa’s L.J. Van Zyl and
Jamaica’s Leford Green seemed to have Merritt squeezed on the rail.
Unless he found running room, Team USA’s gold medal hopes were toast.Desperation measures were needed and the “Virginia Shuffle” became the solution.Once in the clear, Merritt shifted into sprint gear and
could not be caught, running an unofficial 44.5 split. South Africa
(2:59.87) settled for second with Jamaica (3:00.10) and Russia (3:00.22)
and Belgium (3:00.41) hard on their heels.Bershawn Jackson to Angelo Taylor, 2011 WC 4 x 400m, gold medal, photo by PhotoRun.net
Greg Nixon, Bershawn Jackson and Angelo Taylor ran the
first three legs for USA, but Merritt was touched off well back of Van
Zyl and Green.“Sure it was closer than we liked but the 4×4 has always
been an American event and we weren’t about to let this one get away,
either,” said Merritt. “Each man left it all on the track. I just did
what I had to.”It was the fourth consecutive USA men’s
4×400 title at the Worlds. Merritt had contributed a 44.16 anchor
split on the 2:57.86 winning team at Berlin in 2009, and a 44.4 anchor
on the 2:55.56 winners at Osaka in 2007.For reasons unexplained – other than “this was a team
management decision” – South Africa ran this one without its heralded
“Blade Runner,” Oscar Pistorius. Kevin Borlee, Jonathan’s twin and WC
400 final third-placer anchored for Belgium. In a huge strategy
move, Jamaica put its WC 400 fourth-placer, Jermaine Gonzales, on leg
two.Team USA was half flat-400 men and half 400-hurdlers.Nixon was the only USA runner new to a podium position at any “major.”“Feels great,’he said. Obviously.“We
have the best hurdlers and sprinters in the world, so I wasn’t too
worried. I knew we could pull it off, but we were in a position we
hadn’t been in before in having to come from behind.”Jackson put it this way: “Yesterday, I had a horrible race in the 400 hurdles (running sixth.) So to come out today and get the gold medal I was rejuvenated.I‘d been real down, depressed. But today I feel a lot better.”Gold medals do have that effect.Said two-time Olympic 400 hurdles king Taylor: “When
I got the baton, I was in third place. It was a tactical race. Jamaica
got out front and South Africa was up there. I couldn’t run my race. I
didn’t want to go out and swing wide and run out of gas. I just had to
run off the South African (Ofenste Mogawane.) He tried to change the tempo, and as we went down the stretch, I told myself that I had to keep it close for LaShawn.“I’ve been running on national teams in the 4x400m since 1999, and I’ve never gotten the baton behind. This one was different.“
It
was a strategic race on the part of the other teams. They put their
best runners on the first leg. Some of them had their best runners on
the second leg.”
“I can’t start without thanking Michael Berry and Jamaal Torrence (who ran the semifinal with Merritt and Nixon) for getting us to the final (and now earn gold medals, too), said Merritt.“They
ran two great legs in the first round to get us here. We told them
before we got here that it was our time now. We told them we’re going
to get a gold medal for them.
“At the end of the day, everyone was told to do their job and each man left it all on the track.“I knew that neither one of the guys I was running against (South Africa’s Van Zyl and Jamaica’s Green) was going to outkick me.“I believed in my training and my foot speed.”
And maybe in his dance instructor, too.Angelo Taylor, Bershawn Jackson, LaShawn Merritt, Greg Nixon,
2011 WC 4 x 400m, gold medalist, photo by PhotoRun.net
