Glittering finish - Mile relay quartets end World Champs with silver, bronze

Elton Tucker, Assistant Editor-Sport

LORRAINE FENTON, the island's most successful female 400 metres runner, displayed some of her best form yesterday to lead Jamaica to a silver in the women's 4x400 metres on the final day of competition at the 10th World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

Running as if inspired in the stadium where Jamaica had perhaps its greatest ever Olympic triumph in 1952, the 4x400m women were brilliant throughout as they put Saturday's near disaster firmly behind them.

Lead off runner Shericka Williams, in her first World Championships, gave the team a good start but the best came from Novlene Williams on the second leg as she put Jamaica in clear silver medal position and Fenton on the anchor leg.

Ronetta Smith, on the third leg, went out strong but was closed down close to the handover by both Great Britain and Poland.

On the final changeover there were no mistakes as 32-year-old Fenton, twice a silver medallist in the 400m at the World Championships and the Sydney Olympics runner-up, took the baton smoothly and ran perhaps her best race since returning from injury.

GETTING BACK THE RHYTHM

Fenton said she felt really good out there and could be coming back to top form.

"We knew, based on the fact that we ran 3:27 after dropping the baton on Saturday, we should be in the top two. We also knew that Russia were very strong so we decided to go out there and do our best," Fenton said.

She added that it was difficult coming back from injury but the rounds in the relay had helped her to get back some of her "rhythm".

"I have been trying here to get back some of the things I lost over the past year and I think the relay has really helped," Fenton said.

Young national champion Shericka Williams who turns 20 on September 17 said she was proud of her performance.

"I think we performed very well here," Williams said.

She added: "This is my first big championships and I am very proud of myself. We were not intimidated by the other teams. We just went out there and ran our own race. Running in lane one I knew I had to keep the stagger going and not allow the rest of the field to drift away from me."

Jamaica's women clocked a season best 3:23.29 for second while gold medallists Russia crossed the line in 3:20.95. Great Britain took bronze in 3:24.44.

The men knew from the outset that it would have been difficult to beat gold medallists the United States and runners-up the Bahamas but they still gave it their best shot.

The United States were pressed throughout the four legs by The Bahamas but won fairly easily in 2:56.91.

The Bahamas were pulled to a national record 2:57.32 with Jamaica in third on 2:58.07.

Davian Clarke, Jamaica's relay specialist, said they had a fairly good team but The Bahamas and the Americans had two crack squads.

"The Bahamas have a strong team. They just missed out on getting an individual medal in the 400m and they have a world champion, Avard Moncur, on their team. Just like us they have maybe five 44 seconds 400m men so they have the talent. The Americans on the other hand have a great team. They gave the best quarter-miler in the world a lead and all he had to do was to do what he does best. I gave it a good try but with 50 metres to go they were not coming back so they broke my spirit a bit but we tried all the way," Clarke said.

The Jamaican team in running order was Sanjay Ayre, Simpson, Lansford Spence and Clarke.