CALI, Colombia — A pair of dominant 4x400m relay wins put Team USATF atop the final gold medal table Saturday on the sixth and last day of the World Athletics U20 Championships at Pascual Guerrero Stadium. The United States won seven golds and 15 total medals and also won the team scoring title by 40 points with 166. Running with a quartet that featured only one open 400m specialist, the Team USATF women's 4x400m relay demolished the field with an emphatic 3:28.06 to win by more than three seconds, extending the nation's unbeaten streak to 10 in World U20 4x400m competition. The last time the U.S. women lost a World U20 4x400m they contested was in 1998, five years before any of the current gold medalists were born. Mekenze Kelley (Stone Mountain, Georgia/USATF Georgia) opened it up with a 52.9 that set up the remaining three runners for success. Already the bronze medalist in the 100m and silver medalist in the 4x100m relay, Shawnti Jackson (Wake Forest, North Carolina/USATF North Carolina) blazed to a 50.9 on the second leg, establishing an unassailable lead before passing to 400m hurdles gold medalist Akala Garrett (Charlotte, North Carolina/USATF North Carolina). Garrett protected the lead and lost no ground, splitting 53.0 before anchor leg Roisin Willis (Stevens Point, Wisconsin/USATF Wisconsin), the 800m gold medalist, sealed the victory with a majestic 51.3 carry. Bringing home the gold that put Team USATF atop the final medal table, the men's 4x400m relay won by more than a second over Jamaica in 3:04.47. American squads have won 15 of the 19 available men's 4x400m relay golds in World U20 history, losing only twice in races they contested. Leading off with 400m silver medalist Steven McElroy (Pickerington, Ohio/USATF Ohio), the U.S. handed off with a small lead after his 46.7 split. Ashton Schwartzman (Wautoma, Wisconsin/USATF Wisconsin) added padding to the lead with a 45.7 on second leg, and then mixed 4x400m relay gold medalist Charlie Bartholomew (McKinney, Texas/USATF Southwestern) clocked 46.3 on his circuit. Anchoring the foursome to gold with a 45.8 split was Will Sumner (Canton, Georgia/USATF Georgia), who also picked up gold in the mixed 4x400m earlier in the week. Facing two Jamaicans who have lifetime bests under 13 seconds, Jalaysiya Smith (Glenn Heights, Texas/USATF Southwestern) needed a perfect race in the women's 100m hurdles to get onto the podium. She didn't have an ideal start and never got into rhythm as she finished fourth in 13.35. Kerrica Hill of Jamaica won in a meet record 12.77, with her teammate Alexis James taking silver in 12.87. Anna Toth of Hungary smashed her national record with a 13.00 for bronze. A ridiculously fast early pace in the women's 1,500m final stretched the field out right away. The leaders went past 800m in under 2:10, with Addison Wiley (Huntington, Indiana/USATF Indiana) hanging on in seventh and Mia Barnett (La Crescenta, California/USATF Southern California) stranded about 15m adrift in the second pack. Wiley moved up to third at the bell and hit 1,200m in 3:20. She couldn't hold onto the lead duo but finished well to place fifth in a lifetime best 4:11.43 as Ethiopia's Birke Haylom won in a meet record 4:04.27. Barnett was 11th in 4:22.37. A 64-second first lap separated the women's 5,000m final into a lead group of four and then the other 15 starters. The pace slowed in the next circuit, but the damage was already done, leaving the battle for medals between the six women who went through the first kilometer in 2:55.32. With almost a full straightaway between the leaders and the chase pack, the focus was on Kenya's Maureen Cherotich and Jane Chacha and Prisca Chesang of Uganda, who were the top three. The second kilometer went by in 3:16 as Latvia's Agata Caune made a brave move to get in the mix in the top six. Chesang and Ethiopia's Medina Eisa and Melknat Wudu pulled away from the other challengers with a mile to go as Caune gamely remained in fourth. Eisa outkicked Wudu to win in 15:29.71 and Ana Weaver (North Logan, Utah/USATF Utah) nabbed eighth in 16:35.74. Heidi Nielson (Katy, Texas/USATF Gulf) finished 13th in 17:13.97. In field event finals, Desmond Coleman (Charlotte, North Carolina/USATF North Carolina) hit 60.43m/198-3 in round three to earn three more attempts, but he fouled each of those and ended up seventh in the men's discus. Kevin Grubbs (Humble, Texas/USATF Gulf) threw his best of 60.11m/197-2 on his first attempt to finish ninth. Agur Dwol (Littleton, Colorado/USATF Colorado) finished 12th in the women's triple jump with a 12.63m/41-5.25 effort in round two, while high jumper Emma Gates (Turner, Oregon/USATF Oregon) cleared the opening height of 1.70m/5-7 on her first attempt but needed three tries to go over 1.75m/5-8.75. Gates went out after three misses at 1.80m/5-10.75 and was 11th.
A full list of results can be found here. Join the conversation with USATF on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook using the hashtag #JourneyToGold.