LONDON — The U.S. had a big lead when Carmelita Jeter got the baton for the anchor leg of the women’s 4×100-meter relay on Friday night. LONDON — The U.S. had a big lead when Carmelita Jeter got the baton
LONDON — The U.S. had a big lead when Carmelita Jeter got the baton for the anchor leg of the women’s 4×100-meter relay on Friday night.
She knew exactly what to do with it.
Jeter powered down the stretch and pointed the baton at the clock as she crossed the finish line, celebrating a world-record time of 40.82 seconds that gave the Americans their first victory in the event since 1996.
Tianna Madison, 200-meter champion Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Jeter combined for a perfect trip around the track that ended a string of disappointments for the U.S. in the marquee relay. At the 2008 Beijing Games, the Americans didn’t even reach the final because Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams bobbled the last exchange in the semifinals.
Their final time cut more than a half-second off the old record of 41.37 run by East Germany in 1985.
“I just knew if we had clean baton passes that we would definitely challenge the world record,” Madison said. “Smash it like we did? We had no idea, but I knew it was in us.”
Jamaica won the silver medal in a national record of 41.41 seconds, with 100 champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Sherone Simpson, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Kerron Stewart bringing the baton around.
Kevin Durant and the U.S. men’s basketball team also had quite the closing kick in their semifinal against Argentina.
Durant scored 19 points and LeBron James did a little bit of everything as Team USA pulled away for a 109-83 victory and a spot in Sunday’s final against Spain.
Argentina trailed by four early in the second half when the United States put the game away behind the strength of James and Durant’s shooting ability.
Durant made two 3-pointers in an 8-0 spurt that pushed the lead to 13, and when Argentina got back within eight, the NBA’s MVP and runner-up teamed up to blow it open.
James had a basket and drove for a powerful dunk while being fouled. Durant followed with consecutive 3-pointers, and James tipped in a miss and suddenly the lead was 19, 72-53, with 1:30 left in the period.
Back on the track, the American team was in control in the men’s 4×400 relay until Ramon Miller of the Bahamas chased down Angelo Taylor on the anchor leg to grab his country’s first gold in a race won by the U.S. in every Olympics since 1984.
But the silver helped the United States run its lead in the medals table to 94-81 over China.
The South African team, anchored by double-amputee “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius, fell behind well before Pistorius received the baton and was eighth.
Wrestler Jordan Burroughs had his eyes on a gold medal for months, and he let everyone know about his plans.
Then he delivered.
The 24-year-old American backed up all that talk, beating Iran’s Sadegh Saeed Goudarzi 1-0, 1-0 in the men’s 74-kilogram freestyle division to give the U.S. its first wrestling gold in London.
Burroughs, who grew up in New Jersey, has won 38 straight international freestyle matches and is the first Olympian to claim the $250,000 prize from the Living the Dream Medal Fund, a program designed to support U.S. wrestling.
Elsewhere on Friday:
SWIMMING
Ous Mellouli of Tunisia won the grueling 10-kilometer race to become the first swimmer to win medals in the pool and open water at the same Olympics.
Mellouli pulled away from a small group of leaders in the fifth of six laps and finished in 1 hour, 49 minutes, 55.1 seconds in the murky waters of the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
He also won bronze in the 1,500-meter freestyle last week.
It was the second gold of Mellouli’s Olympic career. He also took the 1,500 at the 2008 Beijing Games.
Thomas Lurz of Germany was second, 3.4 seconds behind, and first-time Olympian Richard Weinberger of Canada grabbed the bronze.
The crowd favorite was Benjamin Schulte, a 16-year-old from Guam, who finished far behind all the other competitors.
Fans stuck around and applauded loudly when Schulte finally finished nearly 14 minutes after Mellouli.
BOXING
Lightweight Vasyl Lomachenko and two Ukrainian teammates advanced to gold-medal bouts.
Lomachenko, Chinese light flyweight Zou Shiming and Italian super heavyweight Roberto Cammarelle all won their semifinals, earning the right to fight during the final weekend for their second straight Olympic gold medals.
TAEKWONDO
South Korea’s Hwang Kyung-seon defended her Olympic title in the women’s 67-kilogram division, and Sebastian Crismanich of Argentina won the gold medal in the men’s 80-kg category.
Hwang defeated Turkey’s Nur Tatar 12-5 in a final in which both fighters attacked from the start.
The bronze medals were won by Paige McPherson of the United States and Germany’s Helena Fromm.
Five-time world champion American Steven Lopez lost his opening bout in the men’s competition. Two members of his family said later that he had broken his leg.
SAILING
Australia’s Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page, and New Zealand’s Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie won the 470 class gold medals by overwhelming their British rivals on Weymouth Bay.
The victory by Belcher and Page guaranteed that Australia will win more sailing gold medals than the strong, well-funded British team. That’s a remarkable feat, although the British will lead all countries with five sailing medals — one gold and four silvers. The British came in thinking they had a shot at medals in all 10 classes.
