London 2012 Olympics: USA streak to 4x400m relay victory

For the home 4x400m relay team, Lee McConnell among them, their final last night was played out in the shadows of Mo Farah’s glory and the latest gold addition to the legend that is Usain Bolt. Nobody expected much from Team GB and that is the way it turned out. It proved every bit the impossible job that everybody thought it would be, themselves included no doubt.

Team GB – Shana Cox, McConnell, Perri Shakes-Drayon (replacing Eilidh Child) and Christine Ohuruogu – finished hard-running fifth, a long, long, long way behind the runaway Americans, surely one of the finest women’s relay fours that we have ever seen.

Sanya Richards-Ross brought it home for America women who have now completed six relay titles on the spin and they did it as emphatically as they liked. Richards-Ross could have stopped for a picnic on the last leg, such was the advantage given to her by her team-mates, the equally 
formidable DeeDee Trotter leading them off, Allyson Felix on the second leg and Francena McCorory handing over the baton to Richards-Ross.

The British women finished third in their heat, behind the Americans and Russia, and their job of trying to force themselves into some kind of contention for bronze was made all the harder by the presence of the world silver medallists Jamaica and European champions Ukraine.

Only a dropped baton or a freak of nature would have stopped America on the night. Russia’s Natalya Antyukh did her damndest to close the gap but could only cross the line in second spot with the Jamaicans in third.

For the winners, it was the fourth fastest time in history. For the British team, it was a realisation that this is a level of 400m running which is alien to them.