Felix, Farah and US underdogs dominate track’s last night

Allyson Felix became the first woman athlete with five gold medals as she powered the USA sprint relay team to victory just a day after they had been brought back from the Olympic dead.

The US finished in 3 minutes 19.06 seconds.

Felix had been through injury, the inability to defend her 200-meter title because she didn’t qualify at the U.S. Trials, a narrow loss to the Bahamas Shaunae Miller on a dive in the 400 meters and, almost, a disqualification in the relay heats.

American Courtney Okolo grabbed the lead in the opening stage and her team never relinquished it, opening a big gap on the rest of the field with Jamaica by the halfway point.

With nine Olympic medals, Felix is the most decorated USA woman in Olympic track and field history. When the US was knocked out of the women’s 4×100 after dropping the baton, it appealed to get back in, ran a one-team race against the clock and earned a spot.

Felix ran the final leg of the relay on her way to her sixth career Olympic gold medal, good for second most among USA women in history.

Cheruiyot, 32, had been the almost woman in her last three Olympic finals, winning two silver medals and one bronze, but she ran a superb tactical race to outwit 5,000m world champion Ayana in a Games best time of 14.26:17.

Arman Hall, Tony McQuay and Gil Roberts combined to give Merritt a two meter lead and the former 400m Olympic and world champion extended that to seven to win in two minutes, 57.30 seconds. Great Britain won the bronze.

Dilshod Nazarov handed Tajikistan their first ever Olympic gold medal when he won the men’s hammer. The ladies from both countries have proven at these games to be the two fastest countries in the world when it comes to the track, and it was so exciting to watch them go head o head yet again.

The US team of Allyson Felix, Tianna Bartoletta, Tori Bowie and English Gardner on Friday clocked 41.04 seconds, beating a fast-finishing Jamaica by 0.35 seconds. “Did I really just win did I beat that caliber of field in the Olympic final?'” said Centrowitz, who edged Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria (3:50.11) and Nick Willis of New Zealand (3:50.24).

An hour after competing in her fourth Olympic Games, U.S. high jumper Chaunte Lowe was asked if she would be around for a fifth Games in Tokyo in 2020. It is the longest-standing athletics world record.

Stefanidi, a 26-year-old who lives in the United States, shouted in ecstasy as she cleared the bar at 4.85m and celebrated before she even landed.

An International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rule limiting the amount of naturally occurring functional testosterone for female athletes appeared to have limited Semenya’s prospects but the rule was quashed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport a year ago. For Bartoletta, it was the second gold in Rio, after winning the long jump. There was also last year’s world championship, where a awful baton exchange reared its head again.

He took a brazen approach in a race Saturday that was rather slow at the start.

Hagos Gebrhiwet of Ethiopia won the bronze medal.