Noah Lyles led the U.S. men’s 4×100 meters to world track and field relay glory and Gabby Thomas won a fast-break double as Team America won four of five gold medals in Nassau on Sunday.
Lyles took the baton from Kylie King and accelerated to the line in 37.40 seconds after some deft early handovers by Courtney Lindsey and Kenneth Bednarek.
“Business is easy!” Lyles, who won the triple gold medal at last year’s world championships in Budapest, beamed. “It smells like Paris!”
Canada won the silver medal in 37.89 seconds thanks to a late start from Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse.
Current Olympic 100m gold medalist Marcel Jacobs ran the second leg on behalf of Olympic champion Italy in the last world relay, but Lindsay’s devastating first leg gave him a huge lead over the Americans, and he lost his strength. It didn’t come close.
Italy was initially awarded the bronze medal, but was later disqualified and third place went to France instead.
Thomas, an Olympic 200m bronze medalist, was part of the winning women’s 4x100m relay team that included Tamari Davis, Cerella Burns and Melissa Jefferson, who won two gold medals in just 20 minutes.
They comfortably won with a championship record time of 41.85 seconds, with France taking silver in 42.75 seconds and Great Britain taking bronze in 42.80 seconds.
Thomas was back on the course almost immediately and helped the U.S. quartet, also made up of Quanella Hayes, Bayley Lea and Alexis Holmes, win the women’s 4×400 meter relay in 3 minutes, 21.70 seconds. Poland and Canada completed the podium.
“It’s been a great preparation,” Thomas said. “At the end of the day, they have a great 4×400 meter relay team, so we knew the girls would win regardless.
“This is a testament to how we got into the World Relays. We came prepared with the mindset to get the job done and we gave it our all.”
-Bol blocked it-
Not to be outdone, the U.S. team of Matthew Bowling, Linna Irby-Jackson, Willington Wright and Kendall Ellis set a winning record by winning the mixed 4×400 meter relay in 3:10.73.
Femke Boll of the Netherlands, who has just been crowned world champion in the indoor 400m and is also the world gold medalist in the 400m hurdles, set an impressive time of 49.63 seconds on the final lap, but the difference was too large, and the Dutchman had to settle for a silver medal with a time of 3:11.45. Ireland won the bronze medal.
The only event the Americans didn’t win was the men’s 4×400 meter relay, where star Lesile Tebogo posted a sensational split of 43.72 seconds to help Botswana win in 2 minutes, 59.11 seconds.
South Africa took second place with a time of 3:00.75, while Belgium won the bronze medal with a time of 3:01.16.
The night got off to an emotional start as the Bahamas edged out Jamaica in the mixed 4x400m relay repechage with a time of 3 minutes, 12.81 seconds to earn a spot in the Olympics.
Olympic 400-meter champions and local heroes Shawnae Miller-Uibo and Stephen Gardiner basked in the glory of a raucous carnival atmosphere at Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium.
“It was a little tough, but we all worked together to qualify for Paris and set a national record,” Gardiner said.
Jamaica’s women’s 4x100m relay team, also without World Championship and Olympic gold medalists Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Sherika Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herra, struggled in the first round and lost two in the repechage. Although he needed a second chance, he secured a place in Paris.
The US men’s 4x400m relay team, the current world gold medalists, worked together to safely make it through the repechage and reach Paris, although this was heartbreaking for the French.
The world silver medalist in Budapest could only finish third in the final round of the repechage, and was denied an automatic spot in his home country.
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