Never think he beat her at the end of his last race around the track. Or he finished with a bronze medal instead of gold.
For a memorable 15 seconds on Friday night at the World Championships, Allyson Felix raced in the sun, passing in front of the stands and well ahead of the peloton on the straight. A few minutes later, he took his newly won prize and hung it up. on the neck of her 3-year-old daughter.
“I felt the love,” Felix said of his last stage career. “And I felt joy running tonight. “
He is now 36 years old. So it wasn’t a big surprise that an 11-year-old runner, Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic’s winning team, nevertheless brought her back. The next nine days of this match, he finished 3rd in the combined 4×400. meter relays, also Holland.
The third position still gave Felix his 19th medal at the world championships, extending a record he already held. In addition to the 11 he won at the Olympics, he will finish his career with a total of 30 on the most important occasions of his sport.
Some say a bronze medal is a sadness for the highest decorated sprinter in U. S. history. of their greatest valuable triumphs.
“It’s an emotion,” he said. In the last two years, I’ve come out of the clock and the medals, and I never imagined it would be a position I would get to. “
The once-shy teenager is now a staunch advocate for women and mothers, both in and out of sport. Much of this is due to the fact that she became a mother, then struggled, and finally left Nike, which reduced her salary while she was pregnant.
Felix also had an emergency C-section 8 weeks before his due date. She and her daughter, Cammy, struggled to survive in a hospital room. Any race, to mention the medals that go with it, feels like an advantage right now.
“There’s not a single story that can explain the impact it had on the sport,” said Elijah Godwin, who ran the first leg and was the last teammate to pass the baton to Felix. “Over the years, it has. “, she has become an icon, and for us to faint and compete with her, it is a blessing to have this opportunity. “
Google has entered the scene. A search of Felix’s call Friday night with all his credentials, covered by the animation of his script on the computer screen followed by the words “Olympian. Mother. Lawyer”.
It was all part of a fitting ending for Cammy’s mother, who Felix said had indeed gone out to get ice after the race, without waiting for the scenes for the mother to finish the interviews.
Felix only entered the combined relay after failing to qualify for the World Championships in an individual race. When his call was announced at the start, the two-thirds rider of the first world championship held in the United States applauded like all night.
Until you reach the direct line.
Godwin had a narrow lead when he passed the baton, and in the first two hundred meters of his last lap, Felix extended the margin. Her arms pumped and her knees hit with that almost the best shape that can only belong to her. But she fainted after crossing her last corner and was trapped in Paulino.
She as she crossed the line?
“The first thing I felt was lactic acid,” he said.
Vernon Norwood regained the lead on the third stage, but Dominican Fiordaliza Cofil overtook American Kennedy Simon at anchor, then hurdles runner Femke Bol made a massive delay rate to give the money to the Netherlands. The Dominican Republic won in 3 minutes, 9. 82 seconds, with a margin of 0. 08 seconds.
“I beat him twice,” said Paulino, who finished momentarily in the Tokyo 400m. “But for me, she will be the most productive in the world. It has opened a greater path for all of us.
The United States finished in 3:10. 16. The statistic sheet indicates that Felix ran his last 400 meters in 50. 15 seconds. That’s from the 47. 72-second time he ran in a 4×400 gold medalist at the 2015 World Championships, which remains the fastest ever achieved through an American, but that wasn’t the goal.
“It’s like we’re part of history,” Godwin said. “And having an image with her is the ultimate for me. I just need my image with her and be remembered for that. “
Felix’s last medal capped an opening day that featured heats in the men’s 100 meters.
American Fred Kerley, last year’s Olympic silver medalist, finished his career in 9. 79 seconds, an ultra-fast time for an opening lap that is just 0. 03 shy of his season record and 0. 01 faster than Italy’s Marcel Jacobs’ victory last year in Tokyo.
All the big names have advanced: Jacobs, Marvin Bracy, Olympic bronze medalist Andre De Grasse, 2011 world champion Yohan Blake and Christian Coleman, who is protecting his world name after missing the Olympics due to a suspension similar to lost doping controls.
The first medals of the festival came here on the 20-kilometer walk, where Kimberly Garcia won Peru’s first medal at the World Championships with a time of 1:26:28. Toshikazu Yamanishi of Japan successfully defended his male name in 1:19. 07.
But those are the last medals of the evening that Hayward Field will remember.
Felix smiled broadly as World Athletics president Sebastian Coe hung bronze around his neck and gentleman Douglas Emhoff, in charge of the provision, shook his hand.
Felix stood up directly as the Dominican Republic’s national anthem was played. But she felt like a winner. Her last big race took place in her home country, with her daughter to watch.
“Obviously I’m not at the peak of my career, but to finish here tonight, with Cammy in the stands, and sharing that moment with her, means a lot,” Felix said.
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