Aug. 31, 2003

PARIS, France - University of Texas All-American Sanya Richards (Pembroke Pines, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) teamed with Me'Lisa Barber, Demetria Washington and Jearl Miles-Clark to win gold in the 4x400-meter relay in 3:22.63 for Team USA Sunday evening on the final day of competition at the IAAF World Track and Field Championships at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.

Team USA won three relay golds on Sunday and topped the medal charts for the meet with 20. They won 10 gold medals, eight silver and two bronze. Russia, which finished a close second in the women's 4x400m relay, placed second in the medal count with 19, followed by Ethiopia, Belarus and France with seven each.

In one of night's most exciting relay races, Barber led things off for Team USA and led on the back straight before handing the baton off to Washington. Russia and Senegal were both challenging for first at this point and Russia's Yuliya Pechonkina was actually out in front of Washington on the next exchange. Miles-Clark brought the U.S. back into the fold in the third leg, pulling even with Russia's Anastasiya Kapachinskaya and Jamaica's Ronetta Smith.

However, it was Richards in the final leg of the race that gave the Americans the victory. Russia had a slightly fumbled exchange leading into the final leg and Richards took full advantage. She stayed in front until the home stretch, maintaining her form to hold off Russia's Natalya Nazarova and Jamaica's Lorraine Fenton, who earlier won the silver in the 400m, for the thrilling victory.

"We had such a hard time coming here, because everybody was telling us that Russia will win, but we said 'No way!'," said Miles-Clark. "We came here to win."

Team USA improved its 2003 world leading time it set in Saturday's semifinal with its gold winning time of 3:22.63 for the U.S. ninth gold medal in the competition. Russia held off Jamaica to claim silver in 3:22.91, just a fraction of a second ahead of the Jamaicans, who brought home bronze in 3:22.92.

In the semifinals, Team USA won its heat in 3:24.57 to establish a then-world leading mark in the 4x400m relay. Richards ran the third leg of the race in the semifinals, where Team USA easily qualified first for the finals.

In the final race of the meet, the men's 4x400-meter relay team claimed gold in 2:58.88 to give Team USA the medal count victory. France placed second in a national record 2:58.96, while Jamaica finished third in 2:59.60.

For full World Championship meet coverage and results, please visit www.iaaf.org.