OLYMPIC ROUNDUP

Richardson helps U.S. win 4×100 relay SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Sha’Carri Richardson made her first Olympic gold-medal moment memorable — giving the sprinters behind her the side-eye, then stomping her foot to the track on her final step across the finish line.

Afterward, she moved aside to watch the U.S. men do what they do best in the 4×100 relay — find a way to lose.

Richardson, who won silver in the 100 last weekend, powered from third to first in the anchor leg to lift the United States to victory Friday, then had a front-row seat to watch the U.S. men extend their streak to 20 years without a medal at the Games.

“I was very comfortable with these ladies,” Richardson said of a foursome that includes her training partners, 100-meter bronze medalist Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry, and 200-meter champion Gabby Thomas.

The men were racing without Noah Lyles, who called it quits for the Olympics after winning the bronze medal in the 200 while fighting COVID. Hard to think that even he could’ve saved them.

This race unraveled on the first exchange, when Christian Coleman crashed into Kenny Bednarek, then actually ran by him as they were awkwardly passing the baton.

By the time Fred Kerley took the stick for the anchor lap, the U.S. was in seventh place. They ended up being disqualified for the illegal pass. Not even Lyles could’ve overcome that.

“It just didn’t happen,” Coleman said. “Maybe we could have put in some more work. I just think in the moment it didn’t happen.”

America’s Rai Benjamin pulls off hurdles victory

In the evening’s final race, American Rai Benjamin finally pulled out of the shadow of world-record holder Karsten Warholm, getting his first individual major title by blowing past the defending champion in 46.46 seconds.

Alison dos Santos of Brazil finished third for the second straight Olympics, giving these Games the same three men on the podium as Tokyo.

This race was no repeat of that one — the fastest hurdles race ever — but Benjamin still ran a time that would’ve been a world record 37 months ago, before Warholm took it below 46 seconds.

Raven Saunders in shot put and a threepeat in heptathlon

Nafissatou Thiam (Belgium) squeaked past Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Britain) by 44 points to win her unprecedented third straight Olympic heptathlon title.

The 29-year-old joins Polish hammer thrower Anita Wlodarczyk as the second woman to win three straight Olympic titles in the same track and field event.

Yemisi Ogunleye of Germany won the women’s shot put while American Raven Saunders, the silver medalist in Tokyo, finished 11th.

Marileidy Paulino won the 400 meters in an Olympic record 48.17 seconds to become the first woman to win Olympic gold for the Dominican Republic.

Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet completed the 5,000-10,000 double with a victory in the longer race in 30 minutes, 43.25 seconds.

And Sifan Hassan added bronze in the 10,000 to the one she captured in the 5,000 and was facing a 36-hour turnaround before running the marathon Sunday.