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USA sweeps 4×100 relays, Walker takes first U.S. gold in pole vault

Posted September 1st, 2007 at 12:10 PM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Special Features, Live Race Coverage

tyson gay winning double gold medals 100m and 200m at 2007 iaaf world championships Team USA swept the men’s and women’s 4×100m relays for the first time in 20 years, and Brad Walker won Team USA’s first-ever men’s pole vault gold Saturday night at the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Nagai Stadium.

With one day of competition and six final events remaining, Team USA remains atop the medal tables with 22 medals, including 11 gold.

The men’s 4×100m victory made Tyson Gay the third man in World Championships history to win three gold medals at a single championship, but that feat was by no means assured heading into the relay.

The race itself was a nail-biter. 2003 World Outdoor 200m silver medalist Darvis Patton (Ft. Worth, Texas) reached Wallace Spearmon (Fayetteville, Ark.) just behind the Jamaicans, but Jamaica botched their handoff while Patton got the stick cleanly to Spearmon. The 200m bronze medalist then ate up real estate on the backstretch, reaching his former University of Arkansas teammate, 100 and 200m gold medalist Gay (Fayetteville, Ark.) in first place.

But the handoff between the friends and training partners was rough, with Spearmon running up on Gay before completing the handoff. After a strong curve, Gay handed off to Leroy Dixon (Los Angeles, Calif.) in first, but the 24-year-old native of Indiana had a tough task ahead: holding off world record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica. The sixth-place finisher in the 100 at the 2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Dixon did just that, reaching the line in a world-leading time of 37.78, well ahead of Powell and Jamaica, who were second in a national-record time of 37.89. Great Britain was third in 37.90.

Safe passes and sound running got the U.S. women their second straight World Outdoor gold medal in the 4×100. Lauryn Williams (Miami, Fla.) led off the relay, handing off to 200m gold medalist Allyson Felix (Santa Clarita, Calif.) with the U.S. trailing Jamaica very slightly. Felix moved well on the backstretch, handing off to Miki Barber (Raleigh, N.C.) in a virtual dead heat with Jamaica. The 2007 Pan Am Games 100m gold medalist, Barber blew the race open, giving Team USA a large lead. 100 and 200 fourth-place finisher Torri Edwards (Corona, Calif.) then managed to hold off 100m gold medalist Veronica Campbell of Jamaica on the anchor leg, crossing the line, arms raised, in a world-leading 41.98. Jamaica was second in 42.01, with Belgium third in 42.75. Not since 1987 had Team USA won both the men’s and women’s 4×100s.

Walker wins first PV gold

The men’s pole vault competition was one of the most closely contested in World Championships history. And although Americans have excelled on the Olympic level in the event, they had never taken gold at World Outdoors. Walker (Mountlake Terrace, Wash.) changed that.

The 2005 silver medalist and 2007 world leader, Walker cleared 5.51m/18-1 and 5.66m/18-6.75 easily on his first attempts, but missed his first try at 5.76m/18-10.75 before passing on his remaining attempts at the height. Walker was focused on medaling, and a second- or third-attempt clearance at 5.76 would have been useless given that Steven Hooker of Australia, Yevgeniy Lukyanenko of Russia and Fabio Gomes Da Silva of Brazil all had cleared the height on their first attempts, and several others had passed the height entirely.

It proved to be a wise move, as Walker cleared 5.81m/19-0.75 on his first try, putting him back in the medal hunt. Eight men remained in the competition at 5.86m/19-2.75, including three others - Danny Ecker of Germany, Igor Pavlov of Russia and Romain Mesnil of France - who cleared 5.81 on their first attempts.

Walker seized control of the competition with a huge, first-attempt clearance at 5.86m, the first athlete to make the height. The 2006 European runner-up, Mesnil was the only other vaulter to clear, which he did on his second attempt. A total of six men took attempts at 5.91m/19-4.75, and while a few came close, none prevailed, giving Walker his first gold medal. Mesnil ended second and Ecker was third at 5.81m/19-0.75.

In the women’s 5,000, Shalane Flanagan (Pittsboro, N.C.) and Jennifer Rhines (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.) ran smart tactical races but ended up falling to superior closing speed. With a first 1,600m split of 4:49.76 and eight laps covered in 9:47.31, Flanagan and Rhines sat in mid-pack, in ninth and tenth, respectively. After the pack hit the bell lap in 13:59.93, both women began to move up, with Flanagan near the leaders. But when world record holder Meseret Defar of Ethiopia took off, she took a retinue of Kenyans with her, leaving the Americans to vie for place and time. Rhines passed Flanagan shortly before the finish to place seventh in 15:03.09, with Flanagan eighth in 15:03.86. Defar won the race in 14:57.91, with Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya second in 14:58.50 and Priscah Jepleting Cherono of Kenya third in 14:59.21.

Finishing the competition with marks of 55.96m/183-7 in the javelin (677 points) and 4:37.38 (697) in the 1,500 meters, two-time USA runner-up Paul Terek (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) finished 10th in the decathlon with 8,120 points. Jake Arnold (Santa Rosa, Calif.) placed 13th with 8,004 points, throwing the javelin 56.01m/183-9 (678) and running the 1,500m in 4:43.58 (658). World record holder and Olympic gold medalist Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic won the competition with 8,676 points, Maurice Smith of Jamaica was second with 8,644 and Dmitriy Karpov of Kazakhstan was third with 8,586.

Relays ready for Sunday

Team USA’s women’s and men’s 4×400m relays both moved to Sunday’s final with ease. Dee Dee Trotter (Knoxville, Tenn.), Monique Hennagan (Stockbridge, Ga.), Mary Wineberg (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Natasha Hastings (Columbia, S.C.) combined to run a world-leading time of 4:23.37 in the semifinals, with unofficial splits of 51.16 for Trotter, 50.28 for Hennagan, 50.92 for Wineberg and 51.07 for Hastings.

The men’s relay of Bershawn Jackson (Raleigh, N.C.), Kerron Clement (Gainesville, Fla.), Darold Williamson (Waco, Texas) and Angelo Taylor (Decatur, Ga.) won their semifinal in 3:01.46 as Taylor significantly eased up in the last 50 meters, enjoying a huge lead. Unofficial splits were 45.40 for Jackson, 45.63 for Clement, 44.60 for Williamson and 45.83 for Taylor.

In the women’s 1,500m wheelchair final, Jessica Galli (Savoy, Ill.) placed third in 3:37.77, with Amanda McGrory (Kennett Square, Pa.) fourth in 3:38.02 and early leader Tatyana McFadden (Clarksville, Md.) 10th in 3:41.20.

Team USA Medal Table

Gold (11)

Tyson Gay (Fayetteville, Ark.), M100m, 9.85

Tyson Gay (Fayetteville, Ark.), M200m, 19.76 CR

Jeremy Wariner (Waco, Texas), M400m, 43.46WL

Bernard Lagat (Tucson, Ariz.), M1,500m, 3:34.77

Kerron Clement (Gainesville, Fla.), M400H, 47.61WL

Brad Walker (Mountlake Terrace, Wash.), MPV, 5.86m/19-2.75

Reese Hoffa (Athens, Ga.), MSP, 22.04m/72-3.75

M4×100m relay, Darvis Patton, Wallace Spearmon, Tyson Gay, Leroy Dixon, 37.78

Allyson Felix (Santa Clarita, Calif.), W200, 21.81WL

Michelle Perry (Palmdale, Calif.), W100H, 12.46