Nassau: Noah Lyles led the US men’s 4x100m to World Athletics Relay glory and Gabby Thomas won four of the five relays offered in Nassau on Sunday.
Lyles took the baton from Kyrie King and sprinted to 37.40 seconds after an early handoff from Courtney Lindsay and Kenneth Bednarek.
“Easy!” Lyles rose to fame as a triple gold medalist at last year’s World Championships in Budapest. “It smells like Paris!”
Canada took silver in 37.89 seconds thanks to a late charge by Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse.
Olympic 100m gold medalist Marcel Jacobs ran in the second leg of the world relay and defending Olympic champion Italy, but was helpless after Lindsay’s first leg gave the Americans a huge gap.
Initially, Italy won the bronze medal, but then France finished third instead.
Olympic 200-meter bronze medalist Thomas later won two golds in 20 grueling minutes as part of the winning 4×100-meter relay team that included Tamari Davis, Celera Barnes and Melissa Jefferson.
Thomas took off immediately, helping the U.S. quartet of Cuanera Hayes, Bailey Lear and Alexis Holmes win the women’s 4×400-meter relay in 3:21.70. Poland and Canada took the podium.
“It was good preparation,” Thomas said. “Even if the women’s 4x400m relay team is at the end of the day, I know it’s going to happen.
“This is proof of how we came to the World Relays, prepared with the talent to do the job, and we are committed to it.”
The U.S. team of Matthew Boling, Linna Irby-Jackson, Willington Wright and Kendall Ellis set a championship record by winning the 4×400-meter medley relay in 3:10.73.
Former indoor 400m champion and 400m hurdles gold medalist Femke Bol from the Netherlands clocked her final lap in 49.63 seconds, but the deficit proved to be too much and the Dutch had to settle for silver in 3:11.45. Ireland won the bronze medal.
The only event the Americans didn’t win was the men’s 4×400-meter relay, where star Letsile Tebogo clocked 43.72 seconds to help Botswana win in 2:59.11.
South Africa was second in 3:00.75 and Belgium took bronze in 3:01.16.
The Bahamas got off to a strong start as they won the re-heat of the 4x400m medley relay ahead of Jamaica in 3:12.81 for their place at the Olympics.
Olympic 400m champions and local heroes Shauna Miller-Uibo and Stephen Gardiner take in the glory of the carnival atmosphere at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium.
“It was a bit of a stretch, but we pulled it together and went to Paris and got the national record,” Gardiner said.
The Jamaican women’s 4x100m relay team, world and Olympic gold medallists, Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce, Sherika Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah secured their place in Paris, struggling in the open heat and needing a second bite of the cherry.
The US men’s 4x400m relay team rallied together to calmly negotiate their return to Paris, despite heartbreak for France, the reigning gold medalist.
