Double-Gold for LaShawn
by Matt Martino
Just like Beijing, LaShawn won two gold medals at the world championships thanks to Sunday's finale in which the United States dominated their competitors in the 4x400-meter relay.
LaShawn, who won the 400-meter earlier this week in Berlin, anchored the U.S. to a season-best time of 2 minutes, 57.86 seconds in front of 50,754 fans at historic Olympic Stadium.
"Championships are all about getting the medal," LaShawn said.
His three teammates who made up the gold-medal team were his 400-meter rival Jeremy Wariner, Angelo Taylor, and Kerron Clement - all individual Olympic or world champions in the 400 or 400 hurdles in their careers.
Three of these four — all but Clement — had been members of the gold-medal team at the 2007 Worlds in Osaka.
"All we had to do was get the stick around and have fun," said the double-gold champion of his team’s success.
"We expect greatness," said Jeremy Wariner who opened up a huge lead for the Americans on the second leg of the race. "That's what we did today. We showed greatness."
"Did you think anything less?" added Angelo Taylor, grinning.
No, not with the United States historical domination of the one lap event. On Sunday, the men’s team ran nearly three seconds faster than runner-up Great Britain, while the women’s team ran the second fastest time ever in their race.
The U.S. won all four 400-meter events and took five medals total from those competitions to help them finish first in the medal standings with 10 golds and 22 overall.
RELATED STORIES
US picks up 3 more golds on final day of worlds (AP, Aug. 23, 2009)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i14JJoywNn0Y9il2YYo9hs...
United States wins the men's 4x400 at worlds (AP, Aug. 23, 2009)
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