U.S. track rebounds with double gold in 1,600 relays

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

BEIJING -- A U.S. track and field team that had its ups and downs for nine days at the Olympic Stadium finished with a flourish, as the men’s 1,600-meter relay matched the women in winning gold Saturday night.

While the women’s relay was a squeaker, the men’s team won easily as expected, given that they had swept the medals in the open 400.

The U.S. team of 400 gold medalist LaShawn Merritt, bronze medalist David Neville, 400 hurdles champion Angelo Taylor and open 400 silver medalist Jeremy Wariner clocked an Olympic record 2:55.39, with the Bahamas second in 2:58.03.

It was second all-time. The world record is 2:54.29, set by a U.S. relay in 1993.

With the men’s marathon coming Sunday, the U.S. team has seven gold and 23 medals overall, compared with eight and 25 in Athens four years ago.

-- Philip Hersh