The United States ended the Olympic track and field tournament with a bang.
First, the men’s team set an Olympic record and won the gold medal in the 4x400m relay.
And not to be outdone, the women, like Belmont’s Secretariat, dominated the 4×400-meter relay by more than four seconds, breaking the American record that dates back to the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
There was drama in the men’s relay, where the team of Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Dedmon and Rhy Benjamin beat Botswana by just 0.1 seconds.
Benjamin, from Mount Vernon, New York, ran the anchor leg in 43.18 seconds to edge out Botswana’s Lethree Tebogo, who ran the fastest leg in the relay in 43.04 seconds.
It was the men’s 4x400m team’s fourth gold medal in the last five Olympic Games and the women’s seventh consecutive gold medal, having topped the podium since 1996.
The women’s team of Shamire Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes led the U.S. to its 34th medal and 14th gold medal in track and field, more than double the total of any other country competing.
Little had Jamaica on the ropes in the first leg before handing the ball to McLaughlin-Levrone, who quickly took a decisive lead.
The New Brunswick, N.J., native and 400-meter hurdles champion ran a split time of 47.8 seconds to edge the others into a battle for second place.
Holmes finished in 3 minutes 15.27 seconds, more than four seconds ahead of second-place finisher Holland.
