Record run by Bolt's Racers

Published: Sunday | July 26, 2009


LONDON (CMC):

Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt anchored a powerful Racers Track Club quartet to clock the fourth fastest 4x100 metres time in history to bring the London Grand Prix to a thrilling climax yesterday.

The team, which also comprised Antigua & Barbuda's Daniel Bailey, as well as Jamaicans Yohan Blake, and Mario Forsythe, got the baton around the track in a nippy meet record 37.46 seconds.

But the result was initially in doubt, following a disqualification for a change-over outside of the zone between Bailey and Blake.

This was later overturned, after track officials studied video footage of the race, and cleared the Glenn Mills-coached outfit about an agonising half-hour later.

"It was a good race, a good team effort, we did well," said Bolt. "The team executed well and got the baton around."

He added: "We didn't do a lot of baton changing in training, but we train together, so I guess we know how fast we can go. Over time, with a bit more training, we could be faster."

The final time was 0.36 seconds outside of the world record which a Jamaica quartet that included Bolt and former 100-metre world-record holder Asafa Powell ran at the Olympic Games in Beijing, China, last year.

It was also just outside of the previous world record of 37.40 secs, achieved twice by the United States, whose quartet of Terence Trammell, Wallace Spearmon, Shawn Crawford, and Ray Edwards finished a distant second behind Racers in 38.05 secs.

notable podium performances

No other Caribbean athlete distinguished themselves with victory on the final day of the meet before another capacity crowd, although there were a couple of notable podium performances.

But another defeat for Melaine Walker of Jamaica will surely be a concern for the Olympic 400-metre hurdles champion and her handlers.

second place

Lashinda Demus clocked 53.65 secs to beat Walker into second place with a time of 54.55 secs, which was good enough to outlast another American Sheena Tosta, who finished in 55.31 secs.

Veteran sprinter Chandra Sturrup kept up appearances with a time of 11.09 secs in the women's 100 which was won by American Carmelita Jeter in 10.92 secs with Laverne Spencer-Ferrette of the United States Virgin Islands placing third in 11.21 secs.