Allyson Felix with her 200m gold medal

Berlin: The United States failed to make the women’s 4x100 relay final at the World Championships Saturday, with Muna Lee falling to the ground injured after a handover in the heats.

Usain Bolt won his third gold medal of the World Championships on Saturday when he with his Jamaican teammates won the 4x100m relay. Jamaica won in 37.31 seconds, a championship record but slower than the world record mark of 37.10

The accident compounded the US relay problems one day after the men’s team was disqualified from their heat for handing over the baton outside the designated zone.

At the Beijing Olympics, both teams were also eliminated in the heats.

The absences left Jamaica as the favourite in both finals.

With Jamaica already leading 3-1 in the sprints, they also extended the country’s overwhelming sprint domination over the Americans, dating from 2008 Beijing Games.

Meanwhile, Olympic champion Irving Saladino of Panama was eliminated from the final of the men’s long jump. The 26-year-old Saladino, who was trying to defend his World title from 2007, scratched on his first three attempts and was knocked out of the competition.

The American women were running a smooth race but Lee was struggling to get a clean handoff from Alexandria Anderson, the second of four runners.

Once she did, a sudden pain came over her, and everything came apart. “Just when she pushed off going around that turn something happened,” Anderson said.

Lee hobbled and fell to the ground clutching her left leg. She was taken off the track on a stretcher, with ice on her leg.

The incident ruined the ambition of 200-metre champion Allyson Felix, who was trying to equal her accomplishment from two years ago when she won three gold at the Worlds in Osaka.

Earlier Saturday, Abel Kirui and Emmanuel Mutai made sure Kenya are keeping an edge over Ethiopia, finishing 1-2 in the men’s marathon.

The intense African rivalry for medal supremacy might well have been decided under the Brandenburg Gate when the two Kenyans ran Tsegay Kebede of Ethiopia into submission in the fastest marathon in World Championship history.

“We ran as a team,” said Mutai, who had to let his teammate go to finish in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 54 seconds because an upset stomach reduced him to vomiting over the final stages.

The 1-2 finish gave Kenya three gold and eight overall, and left Ethiopia with one gold and five overall. Later, defending champion Meseret Defar will try to make it a tight medal race again in the women’s 5,000 final, which Ethiopia could sweep. (AP)