By Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor ATHENS, Greece:
JAMAICA'S WOMEN'S sprint relay team produced a brilliant performance last night to gain the country's second gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
On a still, cloudless night, Jamaica's relay stars lit up the Greek capital to take the 4x100 metres in a national record 41.73 seconds before 60,000 spectators.
The gold, Jamaica's seventh at the Olympics, brought the country's medal tally in Athens to four - two gold, a silver and a bronze.
The win was a historic one in many ways for Jamaica and the quartet of Tayna Lawrence, Sherone Simpson, Aleen Bailey and Veronica Campbell.
It was the first time a Jamaica sprint relay team, male or female, had taken gold at the Olympics.
FIRST TO GAIN THREE MEDALS
Campbell, who had earlier won bronze in the 100m and gold in the 200m, became the first Jamaican woman to gain three medals in the same Games. Herb McKenley is the first and only male. At Helsinki, Finland in 1952 he won gold in the 4x400m, and silver medals in the 400m and 100m.
Campbell's two gold medals put her alongside George Rhoden who won the 400m gold in 1952 and ran the anchor leg on the gold-medal winning 4x400m team.
It was another awesome performance and Campbell celebrated at the end by lifting her hands in triumph and claimed victory and the gold with a big, broad smile.
WOMEN SERENATED
Members of the team were also greeted close to the finish line by Jamaica's chef de mission, Don Anderson, as the public address system inside the Olympic Stadium serenaded the Jamaican women with Bob Marley's world anthem, 'One Love'.
"We have been dreaming about this all week and my teammates really wanted to earn a medal at these Games and gold was on everybody's mind. I am just happy that our dreams have come true," Campbell said.
"For the first time in my life I held up my hands at the finish line, that is to show you how happy I was," she added.
Aleen Bailey, who ran the third leg, said the key was to remain calm.
PRACTISED VERY HARD
"We were like a close family and the win was as a result of hard work. We practised very hard this week and during the race we stayed calm and got the baton around for a great victory," Bailey said.
Lawrence and Simpson were also overjoyed with the team's success. Lawrence's appearance here was in doubt up to three weeks ago because of injury.
"I am both grateful and happy after all the injuries I have had. From the begining of the season I had been saying gold but in the 100m. I never thought of gold in the 4x100m," the Florida-based Lawrence said.
TERRIBLE MIX-UP
Both Campbell and Lawrence were members of the relay team which got silver at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
The United States, who went into the race the overwhelming favourites after equalling their world-leading 41.67 in the heats, suffered from a terrible mix-up between Marion Jones and 100m silver medallist Lauryn Williams on the second change.
Jones failed to get the baton to her teammate in time and both ran out of the change over box. Williams, though receiving the baton, did not continue and the team failed to finish. They would have been disqualified in any case.
Silver in the event went to the Russian Federation in 42.27, while France clocked 42.52 for a surprising bronze.
