The United States had already picked up a historic 1-2-3 in the men’s individual 400m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25 courtesy of Chris Bailey, Brian Faust and Jacory Patterson.
And with that trio again lining up in the 4x400m relay – joined by Elija Godwin – gold looked like being a mere formality.
But the Jamaican quartet of Rusheen McDonald, who claimed 2024 world indoor 400m bronze but struggled in the individual event this time around, plus Jasauna Dennis, Kimar Farquharson and Demar Francis ran them mightily close.
It provided a fifth gold of these championships for the US team and helped to cement their place at the top of the medal table.
The result also continued the US hegemony in this particular event. From 1993 to 2016, they claimed 10 of the 13 gold medals available in the men’s 4x400m at the World Indoor Championships.
USA did not win at the past three editions but with normal service resumed in China, the nation has taken the tally of titles to 11 overall.
But this wasn’t quite the race against the clock that many anticipated. Godwin set the tempo on leg one but did not pull out quite the gap he and his teammates would have hoped. Faust promptly disappeared off into the distance at the first changeover only to find himself also pegged back in the latter stages.
On leg three, Farquharson then closed the gap markedly on Patterson to at least add a frisson of doubt to what had long ago appeared a foregone conclusion as a race result.
But with individual gold medallist Bailey on the final leg, another US gold was assured. However, it wasn’t until the final straight that he kicked clear to win by nearly two seconds in a season’s best 3:03.13.
There was not to be a world record which the US quartet had been targeting in a final made up of five teams.
Some of the world’s leading nations were absent from the final after opting to forgo it. But there was still calibre in the line-ups put forward by the US, Jamaica and Hungary in particular.
The Hungarians were embroiled in a fight for the final place on the podium with China but Attila Molnar, who could not upset the US 1-2-3 in the individual event, was too good for Ju Tianqi, who ran the final leg for the Chinese team.
Briefly, the home crowd in Nanjing dared to dream of a relay medal, that prospect lifting the noise inside the venue, only for Molnar, the European champion a few weeks back in Apeldoorn, killing both the home hope and the volume as he increased his pace towards the end of the final leg.
| MEN’S 4x400m MEDALLISTS | ||
 |
United States (USA) | 3:03.13 SB |
 |
Jamaica (JAM) | 3:05.05 SB |
 |
Hungary (HUN) | 3:06.03 NR |
| Full results | ||
Credit: World Athletics
