Lyles took the baton from Kylie King and, after some deft early handovers by Courtney Lindsay and Kenneth Bednarek, accelerated to clear the line in 37.40 seconds.
“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 (42.80 seconds).
Thomas returned quickly after leaving the course and helped the U.S. quartet, also made up of Quanella Hayes, Bailey Lea and Alexis Holmes, win the women’s 4×400 meter relay in 3:21.70. Poland and Canada completed the podium.
-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, recently crowned world indoor 400m champion and current world 400m hurdles gold medalist, ran an astonishing time of 49.63 seconds on the final lap, but the difference was too large. , the Netherlands had to settle for a silver medal (3 minutes 11.45 seconds). 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 reigning world gold medalists, worked together to negotiate a safe passage to Paris through repechage, albeit with some heartbreak for the French.
The Budapest world silver medalist could only finish third in the third and final repechage round, denying him an automatic spot in his home country.
LP/RCW
