BEIJING, China - The quartet of Shericka Williams, Shereefa Lloyd, Rosemarie Whyte and Novelene Williams produced a season best three minutes 20.45 seconds to win bronze in the Women's mile relay as Jamaica ended the 29th Olympiad with a record haul of 11 medals yesterday.

It was Jamaica's third consecutive medal in the Women's 4x400m relay following silver in Sydney 2000 and bronze in Athens 2004.

Anchored by Jamaican-born Sanya Richards, the USA team posted 3:18.54 to beat Russia by 0.28 seconds into silver.
Shericka Williams, who was collecting her second medal at these Games after bagging silver in the flat 400m, told the Sunday Observer the team tried to deliver a seventh gold for the country.

"USA and Russia came a bit stronger than us, so we can't complain," she said.

"We did our season best, which is good for the team, so we cannot complain," added Williams, who ran the first leg.

BEIJING, China - The Jamaican quartet of (from left) Rosemarie Whyte, Shericka Williams, Shereefa Lloyd and Novelene Williams display their bronze medals after clocking 3:20.45 in the Women's mile relay final yesterday. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

The MVP quarter-miler ended the Games as one of only three Jamaicans who collected two or more medals. Usain Bolt, who collected three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relays - all in world record times - as well as Kerron Stewart, who took the 100m silver and bronze in the 200m, are the other two athletes.

Meanwhile, Jamaica's Men's mile relay team of Michael Blackwood, Ricardo Chambers, Sanjay Ayre and Lanceford Spence finished a disappointing eight and last in 3:01.45 - more than a second slower than their season best 3:00.09 that they posted to qualify from the semifinals.

Spence, who replaced Allodin Fothergill in the line-up, faded badly from fifth position to last.

It was the second straight Olympics that the Jamaican men failed to make the podium as the USA team of LaShawn Merritt, Angelo Taylor, David Neville and Jeremy Wariner collected the gold in an Olympic record 2:55.39, ahead of Bahamas (2:58.03) and Russia (2:58.06).

In the meantime, the six gold, three silver and two bronze ensured that the nation of 2.7 million people finished in third position in the athletics medal table behind the United States, who won both mile relays top the standings with 23 - seven gold, nine silver and seven bronze.

The 11 medals accumulated in Beijing lifted Jamaica's tally of medals to 54 - 14 gold, 24 silver and 16 bronze - in track & field since first appearing at the 1948 London Games.

Technical leader of Jamaica's 52-member athletics team, Donald Quarrie, told the Sunday Observer that all members of the delegation contributed to the unprecedented success here in China.

"The athletes did well, as did the management team and coaching staff to keep everything together," the 1976 Olympics 200m gold medallist said.

President of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), Mike Fennell, also congratulated all winners and finalists at these Olympics, which has been dubbed by many as the "Jamaica Games" based on the nation's success.

"From the gold medal to the world records, everything was special," Fennell said.

Minister of Sports Olivia 'Babsy' Grange spoke of plans to set up a Centre of Excellence at GC Foster College to ensure that Jamaican athletes continue to perform well on the international stage.

"We intend to make sure that the infrastructure is put in place to maintain the nursery of talent on the island," Grange disclosed.