Bolt and Shelly-Ann anchor 4x100m teams to gold

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from China

BEIJING, August 29. – Invincible Jamaica once again underlined its track supremacy when they won back to back gold medals in men’s and women’s 4x100m relays on the penultimate day of the 15th IAAF World Championships continued at the Bird’s Nest National Stadium here on Saturday.

Powered by lightening anchor laps by double gold medallists in sprints Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the Jamaican 100m relay teams looked simply invincible as they raced to the finish completely unchallenged. The United States relay teams had to settle for the silver

medal on both the occasions but China won the bronze in the men’s 4x100m relay much to the delight of spectators of a packed stadium.

Although the men’s 100m and 200m double gold medallist at the current 207-nation championship did not figure in the heats, he came out for the all-important final. Justin Gatlin, the double silver medallist to Bolt in sprints, was no match for the Jamaican sprint merchant in the anchor lap.

The world’s fastest man Bolt ran the last quarter of the relay, hurtling through the line in 37.36 seconds after teammates Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell and Nickel Ashmeade had successfully got the baton around. The magnificent victory gave Bolt his record 11th world gold medal, the only one missing from his rich collection being the 100m in the 2011 Daegu championship when he was disqualified after a false start.

The US quartet of 100m bronze and silver medallists Trayvon Bromell and Justin Gatlin, and fellow finalists Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers took silver, in 37.77seconds. China’s sprinters delighted the home crowd with a shock bronze in 38.01.

In the women’s 4 x 100m final, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce did a rocket-style anchor lap to power Jamaica to the gold with a new championship record timing of 41.07 seconds. Allison Felix, who did not compete in the 100m and 200m, jointed the US team but they could only secure the silver medal in 41.68 – their season’s best. Trinidad and Tobago won the bronze with a national record of 42.03.

Olympic champion Mo Farah completed yet another great long distance double as he won the men’s 5,000m gold medal clocking 13 minutes and 50.38 seconds.

It was Farah’s second gold at the Beijing 2015 Championship, having won the men’s 10,000m gold five days ago.