London Diaries, Day 9: Jamaica 4 x 100m runs 36.84WR!, by Larry Eder

Jamaica’s World record, 4 x 100m, photo by PhotoRun.net

(Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Nesta Carter, Micheal Frater)

The final event on the track and field venue lived up to the reputation. The US got the baton around the track, which, yes is half the game. Ryan Bailey, in his first relay final, had to run against Usain Bolt.

The Jamaicans and US team battled through the final hand off, and Bolt got that baton in his hand and just flew. Bailey ran hard, and ran well, but this was Bolt’s fly into history. Consider this, dear readers. The US broke the NR in the heats, with 37.37, and then, in the final, tie the current WR, of 37.04 and set another NR. The Jamaicans kept it simple: good handoffs and run like hell.

Congrats to all the teams in the final, and to the Jamaicans, who set the WR, but I have to admit, so darn happy to see US team run well, get that baton around and two NRs!

And relay consultant to USATF, Jon Drummond should get kudos on putting the teams together, getting the batons around the track, and running faster than anyone but 1 team, on men’s side. It was a race.

US team (Ryan Bailey, Tyson Gay, Justin Gatlin, Trell Kimmons, )

photo by PhotoRun.net

Position	Lane	Bib	Team	Country	Mark
1	6	Jamaica (Nesta Carter; Michael Frater; Yohan Blake; Usain Bolt)	JAM	36.84	(WR)
2	7	United States (Trell Kimmons; Justin Gatlin; Tyson Gay; Ryan Bailey)	USA	37.04	(NR)
3	9	Trinidad and Tobago (Keston Bledman; Marc Burns; Emmanuel Callender; Richard Thompson)	TRI	38.12	.
4	3	France (Jimmy Vicaut; Christophe Lemaitre; Pierre-Alexis Pessonneaux; Ronald Pognon)	FRA	38.16	.
5	4	Japan (Ryota Yamagata; Masashi Eriguchi; Shinji Takahira; Shota Iizuka)	JPN	38.35	.
6	8	Netherlands (Brian Mariano; Churandy Martina; Giovanni Codrington; Patrick van Luijk)	NED	38.39	.
7	2	Australia (Anthony Alozie; Isaac Ntiamoah; Andrew McCabe; Joshua Ross)	AUS	38.43	.
.	5	Canada (Gavin Smellie; Oluseyi Smith; Jared Connaughton; Justyn Warner)	CAN	DQ	.

Team	Nation	Reaction Time
Jamaica	JAM	0.162
United States	USA	0.154
Trinidad and Tobago	TRI	0.176
France	FRA	0.181
Japan	JPN	0.162
Netherlands	NED	0.171
Australia	AUS	0.127
Canada	CAN	0.155

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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