(L-R) Bianca Knight, Allyson Felix, Tianna Madison and Carmelita Jeter of the US celebrate after they won gold in the women's 4x100m relay final with a world record time of 40.82 seconds at the London 2012 Olympic Games Friday. — Reuters LONDON – Allyson Felix won her second Olympic gold medal at the London Games and added a world record for good measure as she powered the US sprint relay team past its Jamaican rivals in the 4x100 meters. The 200-meter champion ran a blistering second leg and 100-meter silver medalist Camelita Jeter finished off the world record performance, pointing to the time clock with her mouth wide open as soon as she got past the finish line, seeing that the 27-year-old mark of the former East Germany was gone. The US team finished in 40.82 seconds, shaving a massive 0.55 seconds off the old mark. “Who would have thought that we would have had a world record tonight?” Felix said. “It's amazing. Our names are going down in history.” Jeter was just as elated. “I was already pointing at the clock, saying ‘there it is!' There was a cloud hanging over us with people saying ‘they cannot do this, they are going to drop the stick,' but we did it.” It was the second world record in as many days on the super-fast track at the Olympic Stadium after David Rudisha of Kenya set a fresh mark 800 Thursday night. Almost as amazing as the US women's relay record was the stunning loss by the US men's 4x400 relay after it had won every Olympic gold medal in the event since boycotting the 1980 Moscow Games. In a thrilling finish, Ramon Miller of the Bahamas chased down and swept past Angelo Taylor in the final straight to deprive the United States of a gold it long thought it had a lock on. Miller lifted the Bahamas to a time of 2:56.72, .33 seconds better than the US. Trinidad and Tobago took third. It overshadowed the last race at the London Games of Oscar Pistorius, who got the South African baton in last place and crossed the line in eighth in an anticlimactic performance after he had become the first amputee runner in track and field to compete at the Olympics. No one came close to a world record in the 5,000, but Meseret Defar reclaimed the title she first won eight years ago, as her Ethiopian compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba missed a chance to become the first woman to repeat as double Olympic long-distance champion. Defar swept past the front-running Dibaba in the final straight and had enough power to hold off Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya. Dibaba, running with blue tape on the back and inside of her right thigh, faded toward the end and was unable to produce the kick that earned her gold in the 10,000 last week. After she won at the 2004 Athens Games, Defar has often had to spend time running in the shadow of Dibaba. Now the two have combined to dominate their fierce rivals from Kenya over the long distance events in London. “I feel like I've been born again,” Defar said. “After eight years, to get gold again is big.” Ethiopia had already won the women's marathon in the center of the city last Sunday, and the favored Cheruiyot failed to even get close to her world championship double from last year. Dibaba was one race away from achieving the long-distance equivalent of what Usain Bolt did over the sprints Thursday. Asli Cakir Alptekin led a Turkish 1-2 when she held off Gamze Bulut to win the women's Olympic 1,500 meters gold after delivering a powerful final lap in a tactical, bunched race. Alptekin, who won the European title in Helsinki two months ago, served a two-year ban for doping after testing positive in 2004. She looked powerful and strong Friday, coming home in four minutes, 10.23 with Bulut second in 4:10.40. Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain was third and American Morgan Uceny, who fell in the 2011 world championship final, tumbled again Friday and beat the track in tearful frustration. World record holder Barbora Spotakova successfully defended her javelin title Thursday. The Czech led the competition from her first attempt of 66.90 meters and while her night peaked with her fourth throw of 69.55, all four legal efforts were longer than anyone else in the field could manage. Spotakova was just the second woman to win the title at successive Games after East Germany's Ruth Fuchs, who claimed gold in 1972 and 1976, and she now wants to match her coach and compatriot Jan Zelezny's tally. Germany's Christina Obergfoell took silver with 65.16m. Her compatriot Linda Stahl finished third for bronze with 64.91m. — Agencies
