USA’s Men’s 4x400m Relay team in action© AFP
Rai Benjamin anchored the United States to victory in the Olympic men’s 4x400m relay in Paris on Saturday. Benjamin, who won the 400m hurdles gold, helped the US quartet also featuring Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood and Bryce Deadmon to an Olympic record of 2min 54.43sec. The US team’s individual 400m gold medallist in Paris, Quincy Hall, was not a starter in the relay.
Botswana, with 200m champion Letsile Tebogo on their fourth leg, took silver in an African record of 2:54.53, while Britain claimed bronze in a European record of 2:55.83.
Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori had put the African country into the lead after the first leg, Britain then briefly leading before Bryce Deadmon delivered a great third leg for the Americans.
When the baton was passed to Benjamin, Tebogo was right on his tail and stayed there right through to the finish line.
But Tebogo’s shorter sprint pace was not quite enough to outpace the American.
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