BERLIN, Germany, CMC – Jamaica majestically crowned their sprinting prowess at the 12th IAAF World Championship by dashing to both 4X100-metre relay gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Stadium last evening.
After the Jamaican girls stormed to a 42.06 second victory in their sprint relay final, the Jamaican men’s unit – headed by the astounding Usain Bolt – delivered a scorching championship record 37.31 seconds for gold in the men’s equivalent.
The double triumph gave Jamaica five of the six sprint titles on offer on the track, since they had already taken both men’s sprints (100 and 200) through Bolt and the women’s 100 via Shelly-Ann Fraser.
It also allowed them to match the USA with gold medals won here. Both teams have seven gold and while the Americans have tallied 17 medals in all to lead, the Jamaicans have 12 to be second on the grid.
The Jamaicans led magnificent Caribbean one-two finishes in both sprint relay events on the penultimate day of the meet.
The Bahamas clocked 42.29 seconds for the silver medal in the women’s event and Trinidad and Tobago clocked a national record 37.62 to take the runner-up spot – like they did at the Beijing Olympics a year ago – in the men’s 4X100-metre relay.
Jamaica’s women’s team did not include top sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown but Simone Facey, Fraser, Aleen Bailey and Kerron Stewart posted a solid four legs and were hardly threatened.
Their main threats, the USA, had been eliminated in the earlier semi-final heats.
“I think the race was wonderful, we had fun, we were always being cautious and we executed (well) and we just had fun,” Fraser said.
Bailey, the sister of Reggae Dancehall star Capleton, joined in the celebration.
“It means a lot to us and our country, so we just went out there and executed,” she said.
The Jamaican girls had looked fluent from the semis a couple of hours earlier using the same team to post the second fastest in the world so far this year and season’s best of 41.88 seconds.
World leaders and two-time defending champions USA were eliminated in the semi-finals when they failed to finish after an injury to third-leg runner Muna Lee.
At the end of a clumsy and badly fumbled hand-off from Alexandria Anderson, Lee hurt her hamstring after a couple of strides and fell to the track in a tragic repeat of their sprint relay misfortune at the Beijing Olympics a year ago, when both their men’s and women’s sprint relay teams crashed out with baton-changing problems.
The USA men’s sprint relay team here had been disqualified on Friday.
The Bahamian team running into second spot was Sheniqua Ferguson, Chandra Sturrup, Christine Amertil, and Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie and they were well clear of Germany (42.87) in the bronze medal position.
“I had faith in the team from the beginning,” Ferguson-McKenzie said.