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August 28, 2004 8:47 pm

U.S. men's 4x400 team blazes to gold

By Mike Prater

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - A U.S. men's relay team finally got one right Saturday night at the Summer Olympics.

And Otis Harris finally got his gold medal.

The 4x400-meter squad blew away the field on the final night of track and field inside Olympic Stadium. The Americans cranked out a 2:55.91, the best time in the world this year and the second best time in an Olympic meet. Australia won silver, but finished nearly five seconds off the lead.

The United States had handoff problems in the 4x100-meter relay earlier in the night and finished second to Great Britain despite coming in as heavy favorites. The U.S. women botched their handoff in the 4x100 relay Friday night and didn't finish the race.

There were no such problems for Harris, Derrick Brew, Jeremy Wariner and Darold Williamson.

``It's definitely more satisfying because of all the pressure that was put on us to come out and with all the other problems that the other relay teams were having,'' Harris said. ``We just wanted to get the stick around and solidify the gold medal.''

The relay started with Harris, the former South Carolina star from Vicksburg, Miss., who won silver behind Wariner in the open 400 on Monday night. Harris ran the fastest leg of the four Americans, turning in a 43.28.

``I just wanted to bring my teammates the lead so they could bring it around the track for a gold medal,'' he said. ``This is definitely more satisfying (than the individual silver) because I wanted a gold so bad.''

By the time Harris handed the baton to Brew, this gold medal was in the bag.

``I think if the U.S. had dropped the baton, we still wouldn't have caught them,'' Australian anchor Clinton Hill said. ``If they had done it three times, maybe it would have been a good race.''

Wariner ran the third leg in sunglasses and passed the gold-medal opportunity off to Williamson, just as he did when both runners led Baylor to the 4x400-meter relay championship at the NCAA meet in the spring.

``We ran together all season, and we performed how we've performed all season, and that's been pretty good,'' Williamson said about his relationship with Wariner.

``Just getting to run with Darold every meet throughout the season helped a lot,'' Wariner said. ``I haven't felt pressure since the NCAA championships. ... We know what we needed to do. Our main focus was just to get the stick around, and we did that, and we ran our hearts out.''

The win was a milestone for three reasons.

Wariner confirmed that he is leaving Baylor to turn professional.

``I've had a great college season,'' he said. ``I've done all that I can do, and now it's time for me to step up to the next stage and see what I can do there.''

Wariner also became only the second double-gold track and field medalist, joining Moroccan distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj (1,500 and 5,000).

And the victory gave the United States its 100th medal of these games, which the U.S. Olympic Committee set as a goal coming into Athens.

The men's relay team celebrated Saturday night like true world-class athletes: By munching on hot dogs and potato chips.

Australia ran a 3:00.60, while Nigeria took bronze in 3:00.90.

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