Anchoring the U.S. to Victory
by Matt Martino
LaShawn and his teammates ran by the Bahamas to claim victory in the Penn Relays' 1,600-meter relay.
The superstar from Virginia ran a 44.26 on the anchor, the third best leg of the day, and pulled away from the Bahamas’ Christopher Brown during the final turn.
One race in 2009, one win (AP)."I knew Chris was right behind me so I played it smart and made him run out of gas," LaShawn said. "I went through and made him get right up on me and then I had a kick so I played it smart."
His team, composed of Kerron Clement, Angelo Taylor, and David Neville, finished the race at 2 minutes, 59.78 seconds.
"I felt good coming out and I had a strong team," he said. "Angelo ran with me at the Olympic Games, so I knew what he was going to do. So did Neville. And Kerron is always going to show up and show out."
"We didn't have anything to lose, but we don't like losing. We just wanted to come out and win, and that's what we did."
Considering it was LaShawn’s first race of the year, the Beijing Olympic 400m champion ran conservatively.
"I wanted to see how hard I could kick coming down the home stretch,” he said. "It went well."
The event went well for the Americans as a whole, as they won four out of six races billed as "The U.S. vs. The World" at the Penn Relays on Saturday, beating rival Jamaica to win both the men's and women's 400- and 1,600-meter relays.
RELATED STORIES
Merritt anchors 1,600 relay team to win at Penn Relays (Virginian-Pilot, Apr. 26, 2009)
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/04/merritt-anchors-1600-relay-team-win-penn...
United States reaffirms sprint power at Penn Relays – Day 3 (Iaaf.org, Apr. 26, 2009)
http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=50321.html
USA vs. The World athlete quotes (USA Track & Field, Apr. 25, 2009)
http://www.usatf.org/news/view.aspx?DUID=USATF_2009_04_25_14_01_15
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