Jamaica advance in sprint relay

Jamaica have emerged as the red-hot favourite to lift both gold medals in the sprint relays after the United States men’s and women’s teams dropped the baton in the heats this morning at the Beijing Olympics.



The Jamaicans have advanced to both finals with good victories.



The men’s quartet of, Dwight Thomas, Michael Frater, Nesta Carter and Asafa Powell won Heat Two of the 4 x100-metre relay in an easy 38.31seconds.



They won ahead of Canada, 38.33, Germany 38.93 and China 39.13.



The defending Olympic champions Great Britain crashed out after botching their baton handovers.



Heat One of the men’s 4 x100-metre relay was won by Trinidad and Tobago in 38.26 seconds after the US team dropped the baton.



A disastrous handover between Darvis Patton and Tyson Gay on the final leg cost the US their hopes of reaching the final.



Later, Veronica Campbell Brown came back to the track less than an hour after winning the 200-metre final to anchor Jamaica to an easy victory for a place in tomorrow’s final.



The Jamaican women stopped the clock at 42.24 seconds to win Heat Two from Russia, 42.87, Germany 43.59 and China 44.38.



Heat One of the women’s 4 x 100 relay was won by Belgium in 42.91. The Great Britain team was well behind in 43.02.



The US team crashed after Lauren Williams dropped the baton during the exchange with Torri Edwards.



Jamaicans Maurice Wignall and Richard Phillips finished out of the medal in the Men’s 110-metre hurdles final.



Wignall ended up sixth in 13.46, while Phillips was seventh in 13.60.



The gold medal as expected went to Dayron Robles of Cuba in 12.93 seconds, just 0.06 seconds off the world record he set in June this year.



David Payne of the US won silver in 13.11, while his teammate David Oliver took bronze at 13.18.