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News21 Oct 2000


Women's 4x400m relay final

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Women’s 4x400m relay final
Steven Downes for IAAF

22 October 2000 – The surprise of the final day at the World Junior Championships here on Sunday was the gold medal victory of the British 4x400 metres relay team.

Only fancied as an outside chance of a medal before the championships began, the squad was led off by 200m individual finalist, Kim Wall, who handed over the baton after the first lap only a metre down on Sheryl Morgan, running for the pre-race favourites, Jamaica.

The race then became a game of cat-and-mouse between Jamaica and Britain, with Germany, Romania and Poland making up ground on the penultimate lap.

Down the homestraight, Britain’s Helen Thieme forced herself just ahead of Anneisha McLaughlin at the line, to put Lisa Miller – only a semi-finallist in the individual 400m – in the invidious position of leading out the final lap ahead of three other medal-hungry teams.

Yet Miller ran a race mature beyond her years, gradually winding up the pace until she hit the homestraight with a marginal advantage over Melanie Walker, who could do no more than ensure Jamaica the silver in 3min 33.99sec behind the British national junior record 3:33.82. Romania headed Poland for bronze, in 3:34.49.

 

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