U.S. caps worlds with relay sweep

BERLIN – LaShawn Merritt raised the metallic blue baton high in the air as he crossed the finish line. Sanya Richards went with a simple flicking motion.

Both fine ways to celebrate a gold medal.

Bottom line? Both still had the stick in their hands at the finish.

The Americans got the baton around the track in the finals Sunday, leading to a 1,600-meter relay sweep to close out the world championships.

“Did you think anything less?” Angelo Taylor said, grinning.

Well, the U.S. relays have had their share of foibles. This weekend at the worlds, the men’s 400 team was disqualified for making an exchange outside the allowable zone, and then the women’s squad didn’t finish after Muna Lee pulled up with a hamstring injury.

It all happened on the heels of the Olympics in Beijing, when the two sprint relay teams dropped the stick.

The Americans, though, had sticky fingers Sunday. That baton wasn’t going anywhere.

“We don’t want to harp on it,” Richards said. “I think sometimes if you put too much thought into it, it makes it too much of a challenge. We all know you get that stick and you have 400 meters to do whatever. We don’t put too much emphasis on that handoff.”

Merritt, Kerron Clement, Allyson Felix and Richards each won a second gold medal at the championships in the relays.

Felix, though, might have had a third. She was scheduled to run in the finals of the 400 relay before Lee went down with an injury.

“I’m definitely disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to run in the (400 relay) final,” Felix said. “But this was quite easy. I feel like we ran very well.”

Against the Jamaicans, too, which hasn’t happened often.

But the 1,600 relay isn’t exactly the Jamaicans’ specialty.

No, that would be the sprints.

In that department, the Caribbean island again dominated the Americans. Jamaica won five of the six sprint events at worlds, a streak that was interrupted only when Felix won her third straight world title in the 200.

The Americans did top the medal standings, winning 10 gold and 22 overall. That’s down from two years ago in Osaka, Japan, when the U.S. captured 26. Jamaica and Russia were next as each had 13 overall medals.

“Any other team in the world who had (our) kind of linescore would be going back to ticker-tape parades,” said Doug Logan, CEO of USA Track and Field.