Team USA sets world record in 4x400 mixed relay

SAINT-DENIS, France — It's a world record that might only last a day. Still, the U.S. mixed 4x400 meter relay team owns it.

The team of Vernon Norwood, Shamier Little, Bryce Deadmon and Kaylyn Brown finished the four laps Friday in 3 minutes, 7.41 seconds to break the mark of 3:08.80 set at world championships last year.

All the record did was place the Americans in Saturday's final, where the record — in an event that is only 5 years old — will be in jeopardy once again.

A record-setting track?

Will several world records fall on another speedy Olympic track? Only time will tell. But it is the mission of every track maker to turn their running surface into the fastest.

Experts at Mondo said they used rubber granules that were more elastic and cohesive to produce the upper layer of the track. In other words, the innovations are meant to enable Olympians to run faster, jump higher and leap further. Kind of like the Olympic motto: “Faster, higher, stronger — together.”

The rest, as always, is up to the athletes.

“It's not the track that's fast, it's the runners who are fast,” Lewis said.

On a fast track three years ago in Tokyo, three world and 12 Olympic records fell.