The U.S. women’s 4x100m managed to pull off the upset. The American men’s 4x100m relay upset.
The penultimate day of the world athletics championships produced surprises in the final two events of the program on Saturday night.
Melissa Jefferson, Abby Steiner, Jenna Prandini and TT Terry stunned the Jamaican women’s quartet of Shelley-Anne Fraser-Pryce, Sherika Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Hera to sweep the individual 100m medals. The USA prevailed by four hundredths in 41.14 seconds.
Jefferson had the best split of the leading riders, then Steiner edged Thompson-Hera by 0.24, enough for Prandini and Terry to hold off the onslaught of Fraser-Pryce and Jackson.
“[If] there’s no chemistry, there’s no trust to be able to pass the baton through the exchange, then you’re not actually going to produce what you think you can produce just because you have the three or four fastest women,” Terry said. “Our chemistry was so good that we didn’t even have to do much when we warmed up.”
Twenty minutes later, Christian Coleman, Noah Lyles, Elijah Hall and Marvin Bracey-Williams took silver instead of the expected gold. Canada, which won the men’s 4x100m at the last world championships held in the US at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, led the Americans by seven hundredths with Andre De Grasse anchoring.
The US had subordinate broadcasts from Coleman to Lyles and even more from Hall to Bracy-Williams on anchor.
The U.S. was without Fred Curley, who won the 100m individual medley last Saturday as part of America’s medal race, then suffered a quad injury in the 200m semifinals.
The USA is the greatest sprinting nation in history, yet they have won the 4x100m gold at just one world championship (Olympic or World) in the past 29 years (22 meets).
“A lot of people see that [silver] as a defeat, but to be honest with the struggles we’ve had over the years, it’s just nice to get the stick around, run fast,” said Lyles, who was in the 2019 4x100m that won the men’s only spot at USA Gold since 2007
The worlds conclude on Sunday with nine finals, including the women’s 800m (Athing Mu) and 100m hurdles (Kenny Harrison), the men’s pole vault (Mondo Duplantis) and the decathlon and 4x400m relay finals.
TRACK WORLDS: Broadcast schedule | Results | US List | Key events
Earlier Saturday, Allyson Felix made a surprise comeback to help the U.S. women’s 4×400-meter relay advance to Sunday’s final. Felix, who thought last week’s 4x400m medley would be her last big race before retirement, was summoned from Los Angeles (while eating hot wings and drinking root beer) to return to Eugene for the women’s 4x400m heats .
Felix, who was sixth at nationals in the 400m individual medley, had the fastest split of the four American women in the heat, but said she did not expect to be invited to be part of the final quartet. Expect 400m hurdles gold and bronze medalists Sydney McLaughlin and Dalila Mohammed to be replaced. Felix will still be in line for a record-extending 20th career world championship medal as the preliminary runners also receive medals.
Gudaf Tsegai gave Ethiopia a shot at the women’s 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon at worlds, taking the 5,000m five days after winning silver in the 1,500m and then being replaced in the nation’s 5,000m squad. She beat the Olympic gold medalist Sifan Hasan of the Netherlands rounding the final curve. Hassan slipped to sixth place, one place behind world record holder Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia. On Her Turf has more on the women’s 5000m here.
Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir followed up his Olympic gold in Tokyo with a world title in the 800m. Korir overtook Canada’s Marco Arop in the final stretch. Algerian Jamel Sejati also edged out Arop for silver. No American reached the final.
Like Korir, triple jumper Pedro Pablo Pichardo of Portugal added a world title to his Olympic gold. No American won a medal in the event for the first time since 2009.
Grenada javelin thrower Anderson Peters, who started throwing stones at mango trees as a child, repeated as world champion.
Olympic decathlon champion Damien Warner of Canada pulled out with a left leg injury in the 400m, the fifth and final event of the first of two days of competition. Warner led overall. Aidan Owens-Delerme of Puerto Rico, the NCAA champion from Michigan, took the lead in the final five events on Sunday.
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