Sport
London 2012: Usain Bolt goes for gold in 4×100 relay at Olympics
“A football player on the first leg and we break the American record?” Patton said.
Ryan Bailey and Tyson Gay, who finished fourth in the 100 and is still searching for his first Olympic medal, figure to land spots in the final.
The American men are back in the final after missing it in Beijing when Patton and Gay mishandled the baton exchange in preliminaries. At the time, Gatlin, the 2004 100-meter champion, was serving a doping ban. But now he’s back, and he helped break a record held by Lewis, along with men who are now coaching a number of the American sprinters, Dennis Mitchell and Jon Drummond.
“They always put it in our face: ‘If you want to be great, go after that record,’” Gatlin said. “Many U.S. relay teams have gone for that record and have not gotten it. It happened to be here in the Olympics.”
Other medals at stake Saturday include the men’s 50-kilometer race walk, the women’s 20-kilometer race walk, the women’s high jump, the men’s javelin throw, the men’s 5,000 meters, the women’s 800 meters and the women’s 4×400-meter relay.
Jamaica and the U.S. are heavy favorites in the 4×400 final.
Bolt is clearly enjoying his spot at the forefront of the sport.
