Records light up World Relays

Jamaican sprinter Blake turns on the jets in the absence of Bolt.

NASSAU:

Two blistering world records in front of a raucous crowd seemingly ambivalent to the Champions League: the IAAF’s inaugural World Relays could hardly have had a better launching pad than in a sultry Nassau on Saturday.

There might have been no Usain Bolt, nursing an injury and not due back in action until mid-June, but training partner Yohan Blake, back after missing last season with a troublesome hamstring, stepped into his shoes with aplomb.

Snatching the baton from Jermaine Brown as anchor leg, the world’s second-fastest man made the most of a rolling start to accelerate around the bend and then absolutely fly down the home stretch.

The Jamaicans clocked one minute 18.63 seconds to beat the previous best, set by the US in 1994, by 0.05s.

“We knew that the world record could happen,” said Blake.

St Kitts and Nevis took silver in 1:20.51, with France claiming bronze in an European record of 1:20.66 after the US team were disqualified.

The Jamaicans’ exploits followed fast on an incredible show of power running by a Hellen Obiri-led Kenyan quartet in the women’s 4x1500m.

A deceptively slow pace over the opening lap was swiftly put to one side as the Kenyans took more than 32 seconds off their previous world record, set in Nairobi last month.

The Kenyans clocked 16min 33.58s for gold, the silver medal-winning US team timing 16:55.33 for a new American record while Australia took bronze in 17:08.65.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2014.

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