Americans just miss gold in 400-meter relay final

Maurice Green was just one-hundreth of a second behind.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Maurice Greene grabbed the baton and accelerated toward the finish, blowing past a Nigerian and reeling in Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis.
But even the self-proclaimed greatest sprinter of all time could not make up for a sloppy handoff earlier in the race Saturday, and his chest crossed the line just a hair behind the Brit's. The Americans were forced to settle for silver by an excruciating hundredth of a second.
The Americans were forced to settle for silver by an excruciating hundredth of a second on a night their teammates easily won gold in two other relays.
"I almost caught him in the end, but almost isn't good enough," Greene said. "I hope we pleased the fans and I hope we didn't let anybody down. If we did, I apologize."
The mighty men of U.S. sprinting, who've dominated the Athens Games with five of the six medals in the 100 and 200, lost the 400-meter relay for only the fifth time in Olympic history.
Biggest disappointment
Greene's close call was the biggest disappointment for Americans on the final night of Olympic track. Despite gold medals in the men's and women's 1,600 meters, the Americans were expected to win them all.
Led by Jeremy Wariner, the U.S. men won their 1,600 relay by nearly five seconds, capturing gold in 2:55.74 -- just .17 seconds off the Olympic record. It was the seventh straight gold for Americans in that relay, not counting the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games. The U.S. women won their 1,600 relay in 3:19.01.
In the 400 relay, a sloppy baton pass from Justin Gatlin to Coby Miller in the middle of the race left Greene too much ground to make up.
"Because of the crowd noise I couldn't hear Gatlin call 'stick,' " said Miller, who ran the third leg. "So I slowed down, because if I had run out of my pass zone we wouldn't have won a medal at all."
Runs with ripped shoe
Gatlin said he stepped on Miller's foot and ripped a hole in his shoe, "just like somebody cut it with scissors."
"Thank God I didn't cut him," Gatlin said. "I think he did a good job making up ground, especially with a ripped shoe."
The U.S. team finished with 24 track and field medals, tops among all nations and the most by Americans since 30 in 1992. The men had 18 -- also the best showing since 1992 -- but the six women's medals were the fewest since three in 1976.
The steroid scandal deprived the women of some of their top sprinters, and Marion Jones accounted for five of the women's seven medals in 2000. She was shut out in Athens.
Greer finishes last
Breaux Greer, who had hoped to become the first American to win the javelin since Cyrus Young in 1952, finished last of the 12th finalists with a best throw of 243 feet, 11 inches -- nearly 43 feet off his personal best. Greer was competing despite a torn knee ligament that required him to wear a plastic brace on his right leg.
In other races, Hicham El Guerrouj became the first man in 80 years to win the 1,500 and 5,000 meters at one Olympics, holding up two fingers in triumph after outsprinting world record holder Kenenisa Bekele down the final straightaway of the 5,000.
Briton Kelly Holmes won the 1,500, adding to the 800 title she won on Monday.
Other winners included a pair of Russians -- Yuriy Borzakovskiy rallied from fourth place on the final straightaway to win the men's 800 meters and Yelena Slesarenko set an Olympic record of 6-9 to win gold in the women's high jump.
Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway won the javelin.
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