10th August, 2012
The United States smashed one of the oldest world records on Friday when they won the women’s Olympic 4x100m relay title in 40.82sec.
The quartet took more than half a second off the 27-year-old record of 41.37sec set by the former East Germany in 1985, beating arch-rivals Jamaica (41.41sec) while Ukraine took bronze (42.04sec).
Nigeria’s quartet of Oludamola Osayomi, Gloria Asumnu, Endurance Abinuwa and Blessing Okagbare running their season best, failed to break into the first three, ending up fourth with a time of 42.64 ahead of the Germans.
The Americans’ 100 metres silver medalist and 200 metres bronze medalist Carmelita Jeter anchored the team to gold with a devastating burst down the final stretch.
It was a second gold for 200m champion Allyson Felix while Tianna Madison and Bianca Knight completed the quartet.
It was the United States’ first Olympic gold in the event since the 1996 Atlanta Games and only their first medal since the 2000 Sydney Games, where they took bronze.
It was not the Americans that broke some records. The Jamaican quartet of shelly Ann Fraser Pryce, Sherone Simpson, Veronica campbell Brown, and Kerron Stewart also set a Jamaican record of 41.41, while the Ukrainians’ third place time of 42.01 was a national record.