World Champs Menâ€s 4 x 100 — A Lap Team USA Will Want To Remember

Among the USAâ€s 9 previous 4×1 wins, only one was faster than Tokyo: Doha 19â€s 37.10 AR, which Christian Coleman led off and Noah Lyles anchored. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

THE HANDOFFS ARE almost always the story in the 4 x 100. This time around, solid exchanges led to a happy ending for the American foursome, who defeated Canada to take the gold in 37.29.

The heats produced most of the drama. The U.S., running the foursome of Christian Coleman, Ronnie Baker, Trayvon Bromell and Tâ€Mars McCallum, placed 2nd in heat 1 with a 37.98. Andre De Grasse caught McCallum and Canada led in 37.85. It was favored Jamaica that went down in flames, as the pass from Ryiem Forde to anchor Kishane Thompson resulted in the baton bouncing off the Mondo surface.

In the second heat Ghana clocked a national record 37.79 to lead the Netherlands†37.95. South Africa, our pick for 3rd, failed to finish, same as Great Britain, our pick for 4th.

In the case of South Africa, officials ruled that they had been affected by one of the Italian athletes. In a solo rerun the next morning, they were tasked with hitting 38.34 to make the final. A 38.64 run with just the roar of the crowd for accompaniment didnâ€t cut it.

For the final, the United States drew lane 7, with Canada — running the same order that won Olympic gold — in 5 and Ghana in 6. Christian Coleman led off, getting to the exchange just ahead of Canadaâ€s Aaron Brown. The handoff to Bednarek was crisp and efficient, nothing like their disastrous Paris effort.

Bednarek ran a solid backstretch, but Canadaâ€s Jerome Blake ate into his margin a bit. A smooth pass to Courtney Lindsey followed, and with an efficient pass Lindsey delivered a lead to anchor Noah Lyles.

The 200 winner started off with a 0.13 advantage over De Grasse and was able to hit top speed quickly. De Grasse chased valiantly but lost ground as the U.S. won in 37.29 to Canadaâ€s 37.55. Netherlands closed fast with anchor Elvis Afrifa to pass Ghana for the bronze, hitting a Dutch Record 37.81 to Ghanaâ€s 37.93.

The United States defended its title from Budapest in winning its tenth gold out of 20 editions of the meet.

“We just had to get the baton from start to finish,†explained Lyles. “When Christian passed the baton I knew it was a done deal. I saw the lead we had and it was a kind of a relief as everybody did such a great job. I just had to finish the race. They made it easy for me. I could have not asked for a better relay.â€

Said Coleman, “We did our job.â€

MENâ€S 4 x 100 RESULTS

FINAL (September 21)

1. United States 37.29 (5 W, 2 A)

(Christian Coleman 10.30, Kenny Bednarek 8.84, Courtney Lindsey 9.31, Noah Lyles 8.84);

2. Canada 37.55

(Aaron Brown 10.41, Jerome Blake 8.75, Brendon Rodney 9.42, Andre De Grasse 8.97);

3. Netherlands 37.81 NR

(Nsikak Ekpo 10.57, Taymir Burnet 8.76, Xavi Mo-Ajok 9.69, Elvis Afrifa 8.79);

4. Ghana 37.93

(Ibrahim Fuseini 10.55, Benjamin Azamati 8.96, Joseph Amoah 9.48, Abdul-Rasheed Saminu 8.94);

5. Germany 38.29

(Julian Wagner 10.59, Marvin Schulte 9.23, Owen Ansah 9.38, Lucas Ansah-Peprah 9.09);

6. Japan 38.35

(Yuki Koike 10.55, Hiroki Yanagita 9.14, Yoshihide Kiryu 9.71, Towa Uzawa 8.95);

7. France 38.58

(Ryan Zeze 10.48, Jeff Erius 9.07, Lenny Chanteur 9.64, Aymeric Priam 9.39);

… dnf—Australia

(Connor Bond 10.57, Jacob Despard 9.21, Calab Law 9.52, Rohan Browning).

(lanes: 2. France; 3. Australia; 4. Japan; 5. Canada; 6. Ghana; 7. United States; 8. Netherlands; 9. Germany)

(reaction times: 0.141 United States, 0.145 Netherlands, 0.146 Canada, 0.147 France, 0.150 Australia, 0.151 Germany, 0.160 Ghana, 0.162 Japan)

HEATS (September 20)

I–1. Canada 37.85; 2. United States 37.98 (Coleman 10.23, Ronnie Baker 9.08, Trayvon Bromell 9.45, Tâ€Mars McCallum 9.22); 3. Germany 38.12 (Deniz Almas, Schulte, Ansah, Ansah-Peprah); 4. France 38.34 (Zeze, Erius, Théo Schaub, Priam);

5. Belgium 38.46 NR (Kobe Vleminckx, Emiel Botterman, Antoine Snyders, Simon Verherstraeten); 6. Kenya 38.56 (Boniface Ontuga, Steve Onyango, Babu Kitsubuli, Mark Odhiambo); 7. Poland 38.59 (Oliwer Wdowik, Åukasz Å»ak, Adrian BrzeziÅ„ski, Dominik Kopeć);… dnf—Jamaica (Ackeem Blake, Oblique Seville, Ryiem Forde, Kishane Thompson).

II–1. Ghana 37.79 NR (=#10 nation);

2. Netherlands 37.95; 3. Japan 38.07; 4. Australia 38.21 (Bond, Joshua Azzopardi, Law, Browning);

5. China 38.38 (Zhijian Deng, Jinxian He, Junhao Shi, Zhenye Xie); 6. Italy 38.52 (Eseosa Desalu, Lamont Marcell Jacobs, Lorenzo Patta, Matteo Melluzzo);… dnf—South Africa, Great Britain.

Special heat (9/21 am)–1. South Africa 38.64 (Shaun Maswanganyi, Sinesipho Dambile, Bradley Nkoana, Akani Simbine). (Had to run faster than 38.34 to be added to final as 9th team; obstructed by Italy in heats)

Jeff Hollobaugh is a writer and stat geek who has been associated with T&FN in various capacities since 1987. He is the author of How To Race The Mile. He lives in Michigan where he can often be found announcing track meets in bad weather.

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