Carter and Frater
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Like Jamaica House in London, Half-Way Tree, upscale sports bars and Jamaica House in Kingston rocked in frenzy yesterday as fans focused their gaze on giant-screen television sets and the starter’s gun sent the Jamaica's Nesta Carter and US rival Trell Kimmons on their way in the men’s 4x1 relay. It was the final track event of the London 2012 Olympic Games, and Jamaica was about to respond to the defeat in world record time that the US women’s sprint relay team handed their Jamaican rivals the day before.
By the second exchange from Jamaica’s team captain and back straight runner Michael Frater to Yohan Blake against USA’s Tyson Gay, the cacophony of screams, shouts, and blaring noise from fog horns and vuvuzelas had risen to a crescendo that could be heard well beyond the Caribbean. Like a wild beast, Blake began to storm Gay on the corner, running the bend at world record pace to hand over to Usain Bolt.
The 2012 double sprint champion on anchor collected the baton in his left hand, switched it to his right and stepped away for home. It was Ryan Bailey on anchor for the US, and Bolt quickly ran away from him, opening the gap to post a new world record at 36.84secs, the first time a team has run below 37 seconds. The US was left to hold the silver as they equaled the previous record of 37.04 set by Jamaica at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu.
Frater later told the press that “I wanted everything to go perfect; them getting the stick around, doing the best they can, and us beating them at it."
Blake felt the US had no excuse this time as they ran well and got Jamaica’s old record.
For Bolt, who noted that he had heard them [the Americans] talk, the challenge was never a worry. But Bailey, who had the task of trying to match strides with Bolt recalls, “When I took the baton, I was thinking: 'run, run, run for my life.' But Usain Bolt is a monster; I was just trying to run."