US dominates relays on big closing day in Tokyo

TOKYO — Sha'Carri Richardson saved the day in her relay.

Noah Lyles and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone put exclamation points on theirs.

The best in the United States splashed through the rainy relays in Tokyo on Sunday to capture three gold medals and close out the world championships on a night when track also bid a hug-filled farewell to Jamaica's sprint legend, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

"I felt like I ran with my heart because of the ladies I'm standing with," Richardson said, as she celebrated her first gold medal of a championships that was far from perfect. "I feel really good. It came back. I'm ready to start all over again."

It has been a tough, injury-tainted year for Richardson, who finished fifth in the women's 100 meters on Sept 14. Even so, the US put her on the anchor leg for the 4x100m relay — the same place she's been for gold-medal performances for the last two years — and she didn't disappoint.

But, unlike last year at the Olympics, when she gave the side-eye to the opponents she passed, then stomped her foot for emphasis at the finish line, she had to run hard all the way through in this one.

Richardson was actually trailing by .01 second when she received the baton from Kayla White. It took a few steps for her to build a lead of her own, and she held off Jonielle Smith down the stretch and leaned in for the win in 41.75 seconds.

It was a margin of .04 seconds, and the difference might have been a slight hiccup in an exchange between Jamaican twins Tia and Tina Clayton. The US had none of those problems.

A full-circle moment

In a couple of near-perfect, full-circle moments, it was Richardson's comeback that turned Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who ran the lead leg, into the first three-time sprint winner at worlds — 100m, 200m and relay — since Fraser-Pryce did it in 2013.

It also left the Jamaican they call the "Mommy Rocket" with silver, the same color she won on her debut at the worlds back in 2007 in Osaka, when she was 20 and earned a spot on the foursome that ran the qualifying round.

"No emotions right now," Fraser-Pryce said. "Just grateful to be able to finish this race. It's been such a remarkable moment."

Jefferson-Wooden wasn't alone in seeking out Fraser-Pryce, whose medal was her 17th from world championships to go with eight from the Olympics, mostly to say "thanks".

"She's definitely paved the way for women's short sprints, and it's so inspiring to see someone like her do what she did and be so dominant for so long," Jefferson-Wooden said. "All of us up here are aspiring to do the same things."

Not lost in the celebration was that all four racers on that US women's team — Tee Tee Terry ran the second leg — train together, and that Richardson and Jefferson-Wooden are vying to take Fraser-Pryce's place atop the sprint game in the buildup to the LA Olympics.

A few minutes after the women's relay, and with the rain still falling, Lyles crossed the line first for the men, giving the US its 26th medal and 16th gold of the meet — totals that are more respectable after what, last week, had the makings of a forgettable trip.

The 26 overall medals are the same number the US captured in the same stadium four years ago at the Tokyo Olympics. Only seven were gold that time.

Lyles accounted for two golds and a bronze, and the finale was, frankly, boring — something hardly anybody says about the US men in a 4x100m. Bad exchanges have cost them in seven worlds and six Olympics since 1995.

But this is now a worlds winning streak for the Americans, who won two years ago in Budapest (but did mess up at the Olympics last year) and didn't have to deal with Jamaican 100m gold and silver medalists Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson because of that team's troubles in qualifying.

"I didn't have to do much. These guys took care of business," Lyles said. "They made sure the handoffs were clean. It's a little anticlimactic, but at the same time, it's a great feeling because, you know, the job has been done."

Agencies Via Xinhua