BEIJING – First the American women held on. Then they caught up and surged ahead for a golden result.

The men started out fast and just kept going, leaving no question about which country fields the best 1,600-meter runners on the planet.

After catching deserved flak for dropping batons in the preliminaries of the 400 relay and not making the finals, the American teams got a bit of redemption in front of a spirited Bird’s Nest crowd as the women finished the race in 3 minutes, 18.54 seconds – the best time in 15 years. The men set an Olympic record, finishing in 2:55.39.

Russia took silver in 3:18.82 in the women’s race while Jamaica was third in 3:20.40.

On the men’s side, the Bahamas took silver at 2:58.03, just nipping Russia who finished in 2:58.06.

“We wanted it to end on a high note,” Allyson Felix said. Felix ran the second leg of the race. Her 48.55-second split was the fastest of the 32 women competing. “We’ve had our ups and downs. We came out with a new attitude tonight – men and women – and it worked out.”

Sanya Richards had claimed a bronze medal in the women’s 400. Her forced smile on the podium as the American flag was raised below that of Great Britain showed anyone looking her discontent about her placement.

Richards redeemed herself in a big way in the relay.

She took the baton from Monique Henderson several steps behind Russia’s Anastasia Kapachinskaya, who actually increased the lead on the back straight-away.

Coming out of the final curve, Richards began to close the gap.

The crowd stood and began to cheer – loudly. It was difficult to figure if the crowd was actually cheering for the American team or just cheering for what was turning out to be a spectacular final leg of a great race.

Step by near-perfect step, Richards reeled in Kapachinskaya and passing her with less than 10 meters remaining.

“This summer I was determined to leave with a gold,” Richards said. “Of course I was disappointed with the 400 meters, but I said I wasn’t going to leave here without a gold.

“I made a move at 150 (meters) and the Russian just kept going. And I said, ‘Keep pushing. Keep pushing.’ And at 50 meters, I saw the Russian break down a little.”

Richards’ 48.93 split was .89 of a second faster than Kapachinskaya’s.

“I wasn’t nervous at all, because I knew Sanya would run a really strong leg for us,” leadoff sprinter Mary Wineberg said. “She passed the Russian and she kept her composure.”

The American men’s team trotted four medalists into the finals.

LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner and David Neville swept the podium in the 400-meter race. Angelo Taylor led an American sweep in the 400 hurdles.

Like their female counterparts, all they had to do was hold on to the baton.

The Americans had four of the top 11 splits, including Wariner’s 43.18 which led the field.

Coming into the relay, we all came together and wanted to run as a team,” Wariner said. “We all ran our hardest and ended up getting an Olympic record. A lot of things happened in this Olympics that we weren’t expecting. We use that to build on. This was a great way to finish the Olympics. It could have been a world record with a close race, but we all ran comfortable out there.”

The race was out of reach from the moment Merritt started around the track. The Americans held a full-second lead over Belgium after the second leg and increased it each time finishing almost three seconds ahead of second place.

“We have the best 400 runners in the world in the U.S.,” Taylor said. “And we proved it again tonight. It’s a great combination.”