Giving up 10 meters to your opponent going into the anchor leg of the 4×400 meters relay is never a good idea. When that opponent’s anchor happens just happens to be the newly crowned world champion in the 400 meters … well, the result is predictable.
That’s what happened earlier today at the IAAF Track & Field World Championships in Berlin. The United States’ Lashinda Demus gave former Texas Longhorn Sanya Richards comfortable breathing room over Russia on the last handoff, and Richards – who won an individual world title on Tuesday – turned that 10 meters into almost 25 over the course of the last lap.
Richards stopped the clock at 3 minutes, 17.83 seconds; her anchor leg was timed in 48.43 seconds.
Today’s action concludes the nine-day world championships, a fairly happy one for Longhorns and Austinites, including the aforementioned championships for Richards and a world title for decathlete Trey Hardee. Richards will no doubt contest a few more meets as the season winds down into September. The next world championships is in two years, in Daegu, South Korea.
This article appears in August 21 • 2009.