TOKYO (AP) — Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles blasted through the anchor legs of back-to-back wins in the rainy 4x100s Sunday night to close out world championships with a relay sweep for the U.S.
Richardson received the baton with a .01-second deficit against Jamaica, but made it up and then held on for a .04-second margin. The winning time was 41.75 seconds.
It handed teammate Melissa Jefferson-Wooden her third gold medal of the meet and sent 38-year-old Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce home with silver — her 17th medal from the worlds in a career she says is ending this year.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone anchored the U.S. women to victory in the 4×400 and Cole Hocker won gold in the 5,000 on the best night of the meet for the United States.
The U.S. closed with 26 medals and 16 golds, a more-than-respectable total after a frustrating start. The 26 overall medals are the same number they captured in the same stadium four years ago at the Tokyo Olympics. Only seven were gold that time.
Lyles teamed with Christian Coleman, Courtney Lindsey and Kenny Bednarek for his second gold to put a hold on the U.S. struggles in the relays. The U.S. won in 37.29 — .26 ahead of Canada.
In fact, the Americans have a worlds winning streak — two in a row counting two years ago in Budapest. The race was run without Jamaica and its gold and silver medalists, Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson, from the 100. This year, it was Jamaica that struggled with the baton and didn’t get out of qualifying.
The only miss for the U.S. involved the men’s 4×400 team.
It came down to a last-lap sprint between 400-hurdles champ Rai Benjamin of America and 400-flat champ Collen Kebinatshipi of Botswana.
Benjamin received the baton with a .19-second lead but couldn’t hold off Kebinatshipi, who beat him to the line by .07 to give emerging sprint power Botswana its first relay win in 2:57.76.
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