- ReutersThe Jamaican 4x100 women's team poses with their silver medals following the event yesterday. Bahamas took the gold medal and the United States the bronze.
Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
SYDNEY, Australia -
JAMAICA ENDED the 2000 Olympic Games on a high note here yesterday with a record medal haul.
Two silvers and a bronze from four relay finals lifted the island to seven medals overall in the 27th Olympiad, bettering the six won at Atlanta four years ago.
Jamaica ended yesterday's penultimate day of competition in position 26 in total medals won, and position 50 based on quality of medals.
The women's sprint relay quartet of Tayna Lawrence, Veronica Campbell, Beverly McDonald and Merlene Ottey, ran a season best 42.13 to finish second to fellow Caribbean team the Bahamas, which clocked 41.95 seconds.
A Lorraine Graham-led 4x400 metres team, which had Sandie Richards running the first leg, Catherine Scott-Pomales on the second, and 400 metres hurdles silver medallist Deon Hemmings on the third leg, then placed second to the United States in 3:23.25 with the winners clocking 3:22.63.
The Jamaican athletes then wrapped up a fine evening with a hard-fought third place in the men's 4x400 metres. Danny McFarlane, Michael Blackwood, Gregory Haughton and Chris Williams were the members of Jamaica's team.
Winners United States ran 2:56.35, Nigeria were next in 2:58.68 with Jamaica getting bronze in 2:58.78.
The women's sprint relay looked like getting gold until a botched final changeover. Ottey admitted afterwards the handovers may have denied Jamaica of possible gold.
"We ended up losing about a metre on the final exchange and you can't afford to give the Bahamas that lead when they have such a good relay team," Ottey said. "We did not do much practice."
Lead off runner Richards, a veteran of the team, was happy with her silver in the 4x400 metres as it was the first time Jamaica was winning a medal in this event at the Olympics.
"...Winning a medal in the relay is really fantastic," she said.
