TOKYO (AP) — Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone received the baton in the lead and the rest was history Sunday night at world championships in a rain-soaked U.S. romp in the women’s 4×400-meter relay.
McLaughlin-Levrone widened the already big lead handed to her by Aaliyah Butler and the Americans finished in a championships-record 3 minutes, 16.61 seconds for a 2.64-second win over Jamaica.
She ran a split of 47.82 seconds three nights after running 47.78 in the 400 flat, where she won her first gold medal in that event and was the first woman to break 48 seconds in that race in nearly 40 years.
The Netherlands finished third. Femke Bol, the country’s 400 hurdles champ, was paired with McLaughlin-Levrone for the anchor lap, but the two were running in different sections of the track.
The U.S. has won eight of the last 10 women’s 4x400s at worlds.
The men’s 4×400 came down to a last-lap sprint between 400-hurdles champ Rai Benjamin of America and 400-flat champ Collen Kebinatshipi of Botswana.
Benjamin received the baton with a .19-second lead but couldn’t hold off Kebinatshipi, who beat him to the line by .07 to give emerging sprint power Botswana its first relay win in 2:57.76.
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