U.S. women's team wins sixth straight gold in 4x400-meter relay
— -- RIO DE JANEIRO -- Allyson Felix anchored the U.S. women to gold in the 4x400-meter relay final Saturday, giving the Americans the gold in the event for the sixth straight Olympic Games.
The U.S. team of Courtney Okolo, Natasha Hastings, Phyllis Francis and Felix?led the entire race and finished in 3 minutes, 19.06 seconds. Jamaica took silver in 3:20.34, and Great Britain got the bronze in 3:25.88.
Felix, who also won gold in the 4x100 relay and silver in the 400 meters, now has six career gold medals, extending her record for most golds by a female track athlete.
Her nine medals overall tie her with Jamaica's Merlene Ottey for the most among all women in track and field. Only Carl Lewis, with 10, has more overall medals among American track athletes.
This has been an adjust-on-the-fly year for Felix: her failure to make the team for the 200 meters, her jaw-dropping silver-medal moment when a diving sprinter from the Bahamas beat her in the 400 and more. But on back-to-back nights, she took relay gold.
"The toughest, without a doubt," Felix said of her 2016. "This year, you make plans and want everything to go according to schedule. Nothing went according to schedule."
Felix took the green baton about two steps ahead of Jamaica's Novelene Williams-Mills and slowly, steadily expanded it, completing her anchor lap in 49.66 seconds.
The look on Felix's face as she crossed the line and waved the green baton said what words could not: Thank goodness, it's finally over.?
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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