BEIJING, China – Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Usain Bolt anchored the Jamaican women’s and men’s respective teams to gold medals in the 4x100m at the World Championships on Saturday.
The Jamaican quartet of Veronica Campbell-Brown, Natasha Morrison, Elaine Thompson and Fraser-Pryce, blasted across the line in a new championships record of 41.07 seconds.
It was the second gold medal of these championships for Fraser-Pryce, who had also won the 100m title earlier in the week.
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Morrison, who made the 100m final, was getting her first medal at these championships, while Thompson adds to the silver she collected in the 200m and the veteran Campbell-Brown added to her 200m bronze.
The United States, running with a very young team and without 100m bronze medallist Tori Bowie, took silver in 41.68 seconds, with Trinidad and Tobago coming home for the bronze medal in a national record 42.03.
Jamaica will be happy with winning the gold, but the quartet might felt a little disappointed at not breaking the USA’s world record of 40.82 seconds.
On the men’s side, the changes all round were messy for almost every team.
However, Jamaica handled the pressure the best and with Usain Bolt on the anchor leg, winning the gold medal was almost a certainty.
The team of Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell, Nickel Ashmeade and Bolt sped around the track in a world-leading 37.36 seconds.
Bolt, who had also won golds in the 100m and 200m, was collecting his third gold medal of these championships and his 11th World Championships gold medal.
The world record holder is now a perfect six for six at the Bird’s Nest, after completing the same treble feet at the 2008 Olympics.
United States team had initially finished second, but an exchange outside the zone between Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers on the anchor leg saw them being disqualified from the race.
This means China moved up from bronze to silver in a smashing 38.01, with Canada taking the bronze in 38.13.
Great Britain failed the finish the race.
