Bolt Leads Jamaica to 4x100m Relay Gold

Two sprint gold medals winner Usain Bolt led Jamaica to the men's 4x100 meters win with a new world record at the Beijing Olympic Games on Friday.

Bolt, who broke both the 100m and 200m world records en route to the gold medals, ran the third leg and gave the Jamaicans a big lead before handing the baton to Asafa Powell, the former world 100m record holder.

Powell easily anchored the race in 37.10 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 37.40 set by the United States in the 1992 Olympic Games.

Trinidad and Tobago, led by 100m silver medalist Richard Thompson, took the silver in 38.06 seconds and Japan won the bronze in 38.15.

Jamaican, also including Nesta Carter and Michael Frater, had not been really challenged in the final since the most favorite teams of the United States, Britain and Nigeria had been either disqualified or failed to finish the qualifying round.

Japanese team, with a surprise, won the bronze medal in 38.15 seconds to update their seasonal best result. It has been also the best result for Asian countries in the men's Olympic 4x100m relay events.

"It is the highest stage. I think this is the best achievement I have ever got in my life. We still have some distance from the best competitors in the world," said Nobuharu Asahara, the last leg of the team, adding that they were very happy to make history for Asia.

A combination from China, led by the promising sprinter Hu Kai which entered the final for the first time at Olympics, finished the last in the eight-team relay final.

However, the Chinese team's result was later disqualified by the judges according to rule 170.14 of the IAAF for the sprinters made a foul between the third and fourth leg, in which they failed to complete the baton exchange inside the handover section.

(Xinhua News Agency Augsut 22, 2008)

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