SAINT-DENIS – Rai Benjamin held off Letsile Tebogo on the anchor leg to give the United States a gold medal and an Olympic-record time in the men's 4x400-meter relay at the Paris Games on Saturday night.
“I calculated that run very well to a T," Benjamin said. "I have a really good, high ‘track IQ’ on people and how they run and how to do a quick time, so I didn’t have to get out too hard: Let’s just save it up to come home.'"
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Benjamin added this Olympic title to the one he claimed in the 400-meter hurdles a night earlier and prevented 200-meter champion Tebogo from giving Botswana another triumph over the Americans.
It was Tebogo, the 21-year-old sprinting sensation, who stole the spotlight — and the gold — from the U.S. in the 200 on Thursday, relegating Kenny Bednarek to silver and Noah Lyles, who tested positive for COVID-19, to bronze.
The U.S. quartet of Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon and Benjamin completed the four laps in 2 minutes, 54.43 seconds, nearly a second faster than the American 4x400 team ran at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And Saturday's time was just .14 seconds off the world record set by the United States in 1993.
It’s the Americans’ 19th gold in the 26 runnings of this relay at the Summer Olympics. No other country has more than two golds in the men’s 4x400.
“Team USA have always had dominance over the 4x4,” Bailey said, "and we just wanted to keep it going.”
Quincy Wilson, a 16-year-old from Virginia, took part in the first round of the relay, so he got a gold medal, too, making him the youngest male athlete from the U.S. to win a track medal at any Summer Olympics. Wilson left the Americans in a distant seventh after his opening lap Friday, but Bailey's strong anchor leg allowed the team to qualify.
On Saturday, Botswana was a tenth of a second back, with Tebogo joined by Bayapo Ndori, Busang Collen Kebinatshipi and Anthony Pesela.
Britain was third in 2:55.83.
“Competing at U.S. trials, we know what to expect. That’s the hard part; this is the easy part,” Benjamin said. “So coming out here and believing in ourselves and trusting each other — that’s what makes this work, makes us so successful, when it comes to these global championships.”
That victory was followed shortly by another — much easier — one for the U.S. in the women's 4x400 relay, which ended the track and field portion of the 2024 Olympics.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas helped the American women win by 4.23 seconds, giving the country 14 golds and 34 overall medals at the track, by far the most of any country that competed in Paris.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games