Six cougars ran on the men’s relay teams that won silver medals for USA Team. | File photo/The Cougar
The final day of track & field competition at the 29th Summer Universiade saw the running of the relay races.
The men’s 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams fulfilled their goal of winning a medal for themselves and their country as they ended the day with silver, but the day did not start well for USA Team.
The men’s 4x100m relay team composed of senior Cameron Burrell, sophomores John Lewis III and Jacarias Martin and 2016 graduate LeShon Collins all probably had hopes of bringing home a gold medal. After running the fastest qualifying time, 39.15s, USA Team was in a great situation to win.
However, Japan edged out USA Team in the final to take first place. USA Team improved on their time, running 38.69s, but Japan was just slightly faster at 38.65s.
Either way the all-Cougar team helped add one more medal to USA’s medal count with a second place win.
As is the case at all track & field meets, the men’s 4x400m relay race was the last event at the Universiade. USA Team was once again in contention for a medal after running the third fastest qualifying time, 3:08.28s.
The relay team, which included junior Amere Lattin and 2017 graduate Curtis Brown, improved their time to 3:06.68s. However, the Dominican Republic were able to run over two seconds faster, 3:04.34s, to win the gold medal.
The women’s 4x100m relay team was in the final, but the team failed to get the baton to sophomore Samiyah Samuels in time on the final leg, disqualifying them.
A medal was not guaranteed, and they were struggling to make up ground even before the final 100m, but not being able to finish the race must have hurt the all-Cougar relay team.
Regardless, the Cougars competing in the relays accomplished the goal they set out with when they were named to USA Team: to win medals for the United States.
