Sunday Sprint Video and Recap: US Wins Golden Baton With 7 of 10 Wins, But Gets Beat in Women’s 4×100

By LetsRun.com
May 3, 2015

The U.S. won seven of the 10 events at the 2015 World Relays, tallying 63 points to easily win the team championship — the Golden Baton — over runners-up Jamaica (46 points). The only events the U.S. didn’t win were the men’s and women’s 4×200 (where the U.S. was done in by a pair of shoddy handoffs) and the women’s 4×100, where they were second to Jamaica.

Results and brief recap of the day 2 sprint finals below.

Click here for full results (with splits)

The U.S. took home the Golden Baton for the second year in a row The U.S. took home the Golden Baton for the second year in a row

Women’s 4×400: USA Cruises to Win Over Jamaica

1 USA UNITED STATES USAUSA 3:19.39 CR 8
2 JAM JAMAICA JAMJAM 3:22.49 SB 7
3 GBR GREAT BRITAIN & N.I. GBRGBR 3:26.38 SB 6
4 FRA FRANCE FRAFRA 3:26.68 SB 5
5 POL POLAND POLPOL 3:29.30 SB 4
6 CAN CANADA CANCAN 3:29.65 SB 3
7 AUS AUSTRALIA AUSAUS 3:30.03 SB 2
8 BRA BRAZIL BRABRA 3:31.30 1

The U.S. team of Phyllis Francis, Natasha Hastings, Sanya Richards-Ross and Francena McCorory was just too good for Jamaica.

B final

1 CUB CUBA CUBCUB 3:30.94 SB
2 JPN JAPAN JPNJPN 3:34.65
3 BAH BAHAMAS BAHBAH 3:35.01
4 TTO TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO TTOTTO 3:35.23 SB
5 BOT BOTSWANA BOTBOT 3:35.76 SB
6 NAM NAMIBIA NAMNAM 3:40.21 NR
VEN VENEZUELA VENVEN DNS
NGR NIGERIA NGRNGR DNS

Men’s 4×200: In a Race Full of Poor Exchanges, Usain Bolt-less Jamaica Screws Up Least

Article continues below player.
1 JAM JAMAICA JAMJAM 1:20.97 8
2 FRA FRANCE FRAFRA 1:21.49 7
3 GER GERMANY GERGER 1:22.65 6
4 POL POLAND POLPOL 1:22.85 5
5 BAH BAHAMAS BAHBAH 1:22.91 4
6 SKN SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS SKNSKN 1:22.92 3
7 SUI SWITZERLAND SUISUI 1:24.37 NR 2
USA UNITED STATES USAUSA DQ R170.7

Bolt, who most assumed would sub into the Jamaican team in the final, sat this one out as an injury precaution, and just like the women’s final last night, this turned into a very entertaining race. Both Jamaica and France had poor passes but it was the U.S. that really screwed up as they dropped the baton on the Isiah Young-Curtis Mitchell handoff (second exchange), which led to them being disqualified for passing the baton out of the exchange zone. Despite the poor handoff, the U.S. still managed to cross the line third as Justin Gatlin made up a massive amount of ground on the anchor leg — though it was ultimately for nought.

Race for US Visitors:

Gatlin talks about 4×200:

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Overall
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Value
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Women’s 4×100: Veronica Campbell-Brown Anchors Jamaica to Victory

1 JAM JAMAICA JAMJAM 42.14 WL 8 0.154
2 USA UNITED STATES USAUSA 42.32 SB 7 0.173
3 GBR GREAT BRITAIN & N.I. GBRGBR 42.84 SB 6 0.132
4 CAN CANADA CANCAN 42.85 SB 5 0.155
5 TTO TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO TTOTTO 42.88 4 0.162
6 BRA BRAZIL BRABRA 42.92 SB 3 0.141
7 NGR NIGERIA NGRNGR 42.99 SB 2 0.154
8 SUI SWITZERLAND SUISUI 43.74 1 0.152

There were no excuses this time for the U.S. They got the stick around but were beaten cleanly by the Jamaicans, with VCB sprinting away from Carmelita Jeter on the anchor leg.

Video:

B final

1 ECU ECUADOR ECUECU 44.14 SB 0.202
2 BAH BAHAMAS BAHBAH 44.14 0.124
3 VEN VENEZUELA VENVEN 44.17 SB 0.254
4 CHN PR OF CHINA CHNCHN 44.28 SB 0.186
5 PUR PUERTO RICO PURPUR 44.56 0.149
6 KAZ KAZAKHSTAN KAZKAZ 44.89 0.288
7 SWE SWEDEN SWESWE 44.97 0.189
8 AUS AUSTRALIA AUSAUS 45.70 0.146

Men’s 4×400: LaShawn Merritt Holds Off Chris Brown on Anchor to Give the USA the Win Over The Bahamas

1 USA UNITED STATES USAUSA 2:58.43 WL 8 0.168
2 BAH BAHAMAS BAHBAH 2:58.91 SB 7 0.166
3 BEL BELGIUM BELBEL 2:59.33 NR 6 0.162
4 JAM JAMAICA JAMJAM 3:00.23 SB 5 0.223
5 BRA BRAZIL BRABRA 3:00.96 SB 4 0.195
6 GBR GREAT BRITAIN & N.I. GBRGBR 3:01.50 SB 3 0.173
7 TTO TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO TTOTTO 3:03.10 2 0.181
8 BOT BOTSWANA BOTBOT 3:03.73 1 0.179

This was the race all of the Bahamas wanted to go differently. Chris Brown (who split 44.17)  was gaining on LaShawn Merritt (44.72) but in the end, Merritt’s lead was too big thanks to the strong early work of the other three Americans – David Verburg (44.91), Tony McQuay (44.00!!) and Jeremy Wariner (44.80). Wariner’s stock rose this weekend with a nice leg last night in the prelim (44.87) to get him into the final. Interestingly though, the young guys Verburg and McQuay had the fastest splits. Wariner and Merritt both sounded confident in their post-race talks.

*Other splits here

Race:

Jeremy Wariner

David Verburg

LaShawn Merritt (vid coming)

B final

1 POL POLAND POLPOL 3:03.23 0.159
2 CUB CUBA CUBCUB 3:03.73 0.167
3 GER GERMANY GERGER 3:04.90 SB 0.205
4 AUS AUSTRALIA AUSAUS 3:05.13 SB 0.189
KEN KENYA KENKEN DQ R170.18
FRA FRANCE FRAFRA DQ R162.7
KSA SAUDI ARABIA KSAKSA DNS
VEN VENEZUELA VENVEN DNS

 

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