Paris Olympics: Netherlands stuns U.S. in 4×400 mixed relay

PARIS — The American quartet that broke the mixed 4×400-meter relay world record during Friday’s prelims may have peaked a day early.

They didn’t build a big enough lead in Saturday’s final to hold off Dutch superstar Femke Bol.

Bol ran an anchor leg for the ages, taking the baton in fourth place and reeling in all three runners ahead of her. She passed U.S. anchor Kaylyn Brown on the final stretch to secure gold for the Netherlands and to leave the Americans with silver.

“I just went for it,” Bol said. “We just wanted a medal. We didn’t care about time. We just wanted a medal. Well, we got the gold, and it’s absolutely crazy.”

Bol’s blazing 47.93-second split on her anchor leg propelled the Netherlands to a time of 3:07.43, just two hundredths of a second off the world record the Americans set a night earlier. Vernon Norwood, Shamier Little, Bryce Deadmon and Brown finished less than two tenths of a second behind the gold medal winners.

This is the first Olympic medal for Little, a 29-year-old seasoned pro, and Brown, a ballyhooed 19-year-old Arkansas freshman. Norwood and Deadmon were both part of medal-winning relay squads in Tokyo three years ago.

“We’re still world record holders,” Norwood said. “To come away with a silver medal with this group, with Kaylyn Brown holding us down, I couldn’t be more proud of us.”

The U.S. has now medaled in the mixed 4×400-meter relay at every global championship since the event was contested for the first time at the Tokyo Olympics. That only one of those medals was gold is a surprise considering the country’s depth of 400-meter talent.

Since the mixed 4×400-meter relay is a newer, less-prestigious event that comes early in a meet, top American stars seldom risk fatigue or injury to participate. The U.S. benefits from having an assortment of second-tier runners who didn’t qualify for the Olympics in the open 400 or the 400 hurdles yet are still some of the world’s fastest at the distance.

Relay coach Mike Marsh had so many options to choose from that he didn’t even bother to use the world’s eighth-fastest man in the 400 this year. Sixteen-year-old phenom Quincy Wilson ran three straight sub-45-second times at the U.S. Olympic Trials earlier this summer and then lowered his personal best to a blazing 44.20 a few weeks later.

It’s hard to quibble with Marsh’s decision to stick with Deadmon and Norwood after they helped the U.S. set a world record the previous night. Wilson will have to hope he gets called upon to run in the men’s 4×400-meter relay prelims on Aug. 9 or the final on Aug. 10.