(Sports Network) - American runners LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner and David Neville crossed the finish line in 1-2-3 fashion to sweep the men's 400 meters Thursday at the Beijing Olympics, saving the U.S. Track and Field team from an embarrassing showing in qualifying for both the men's and women's 400-meter relays. All told, the U.S. earned six medals (1 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze) on a rainy night at the Bird's Nest. The haul also included a silver medal from Allyson Felix in the women's 200, a silver for David Payne in the men's 110 hurdles and a bronze for David Oliver in the same event.

Merritt earned the gold medal in the men's 400 by completing the race in a personal-best time of 43.75 seconds. Wariner, the gold medalist in the 400 at the Athens Games, crossed the line in 44.74 seconds.

"After the semis, I knew I would run a personal best," said Merritt. "I had a strategy, I stuck to it, and now I'm an Olympic champion."

Neville then took the bronze, diving across the finish line with a split of 44.80 seconds. The daring leap at the end allowed him to beat Christopher Brown of the Bahamas by just .04 seconds.

In addition to his Olympic gold medal in Athens, Wariner is the defending world champion at the distance, while Merritt took silver at last year's worlds and won the 400 at the U.S. Track and Field trials last month. The American sprinters have developed a healthy rivalry that has wound up working to the benefit of the U.S. track team.

The U.S. sweep came just minutes after both American 4x100 teams fumbled their way out of relay contention, as both squads dropped the batons and were eliminated in the qualifying round.

The American men's team began the blooper reel-worthy relays just as the U.S. seemed to be coasting to a spot in Friday's final and a much-anticipated showdown with the Jamaicans.

However, Darvis Patton and Tyson Gay failed to make a clean exchange on the final handoff of the race and the baton tumbled to the track, effectively ending qualification hopes for the U.S. Gay never ran his leg from that point, as the U.S. men went down as a Did Not Finish on the results sheet.

"It probably was my fault," said Gay. "People say if it hits your hand, you should have it."

Gay already suffered disappointment at these Games after failing to reach the final round of the 100 meters despite coming into Beijing as a medal favorite.

The Jamaican men cruised to a win in the second heat of the 4x100 and did so despite resting Usain Bolt, winner of the 100 and 200 meters in world-record time at the Beijing Games. Bolt is expected to run in the final round.

Great Britain and Nigeria were also disqualified in the same heat as the U.S. Those DQs should make Jamaica's run to gold in the relay even easier, as the Brits won gold in the 400m relay four years ago in Athens, the Americans took silver and Nigeria earned bronze.

The American women's 4x100 squad also dropped the baton on the final exchange, as Lauryn Williams failed to accept the handoff from Torri Edwards. Williams picked up the baton from the track and finished the race, but the U.S. was disqualified anyway.

The Jamaican women also won their heat to advance to the final round, where they will be heavy favorites as Shelly-Ann Fraser won the gold in the 100 meters to lead a medals sweep by Jamaica in the individual 100m event.

The U.S. finish of silver and bronze in the 110m hurdles also helped to ease the sting of the relay fiascoes. Cuba's Dayron Robles won the sprint, but that was not a huge surprise considering he is the world-record holder.

Robles earned the gold with a sensational run of 12.93 seconds -- just .06 seconds off the world mark he set in June. Payne crossed the line in 13.17 seconds and Oliver was just .01 seconds back in third.

"To come in two and three is good for me," said Oliver. "Dayron is a great 110-meter hurdler, probably one of the best of all time. For me and David to come in right behind him is an honor."

Not to be completely lost in the shuffle, Jamaica claimed another gold medal in track and field on Thursday, as Veronica Campbell-Brown won the women's 200 meters.

Campbell-Brown defended her gold medal from the Athens Games, winning the race with a personal-best run of 21.74 seconds.

Felix, the silver medalist in Athens, was second to Campbell-Brown once again, finishing in 21.93 seconds.

"I'm definitely a little bit disappointed," said Felix. "You know it was four long years of preparation."

Jamaica also won the bronze medal as Kerron Stewart posted a time of 22- seconds flat, crossing the finish line just .01 seconds ahead of Muna Lee of the U.S. Stewart also took the silver medal in the 100 at these Games.

Marshevet Hooker of the U.S. finished in fifth place.

Led by Bolt, the Jamaicans have won nine medals, including five gold, in Beijing and all of them have come in the track and field competition.

Campbell-Brown's victory in the 200 also made Jamaica just the second nation in Olympic track and field history to win gold in all four sprint events, the men's and women's 100 and 200 races, at the same Games. The U.S. did it three times, pulling off the feat at the 1964, '84 and '88 Olympics.

Three other gold medals were awarded Thursday in track and field, including two more in the night session after Olga Kaniskina of Russia earned gold in the morning with a dominating performance in the women's 20k walk.

Nelson Evora won the first gold medal for Portugal at the Beijing Games, taking gold in the men's triple jump. Evora, the reigning world champion, turned in his best jump of the season, a leap of 17.67 meters, to defeat Great Britain's Phillips Idowu by just .05 meters.

Evora's gold gives Portugal two medals in Beijing, adding to the silver medal Vanessa Fernandez won in the women's triathlon.

Leevan Sands of the Bahamas won the bronze medal with a national-record jump of 17.59 meters.

Also, Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic won gold in women's javelin, turning in the best toss of the night on her final throw.

Spotakova, the defending world champion, became an Olympic champion with a throw of 71.42 meters to defeat Russia's Maria Abakumova, who set a national record with a mark of 70.78 meters.

Christina Obergfoll of Germany was the bronze medalist, finishing with a best throw of 66.13m.

Men's decathlon also continued in the evening, and Bryan Clay of the U.S. leads the competition with 4521 points after five events.

Clay was also in first after the morning session, earning a total of 2862 points in the 100m, the long jump and shot put. He finished in 11th and 10th place, respectively, in the high jump and 400 later in the day and holds an 88-point advantage over Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus.

Trey Hardee of the U.S. held on to his third-place position with 4428 points after five events.

The decathlon is scheduled to finish Friday with action in the 110 hurdles, discus throw, pole vault and javelin.

Shannon Rowbury of the U.S. qualified for Saturday's final in the women's 1,500 meters as she ran the race in 4 minutes, 3.89 seconds -- the fourth- fastest time of the day. Nancy Jebet Langat of Kenya was first in qualifying with a time of 4:03.02.

American runners Christin Wurth-Thomas and Erin Donohue failed to earn a berth in the final.

Nick Symmonds was the loner runner for the U.S. in the semifinals of the men's 800 and wasn't able to advance after posting the 17th-best time (1:46.96) out of 24 runners.

Kenya's Alfred Kirwa Yego had the best run of the night with a time of 1:44.73.



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