RIO DE JANEIRO -- LaShawn Merritt anchored the U.S. men's 1,600-meter relay team Saturday to an Olympic gold medal, regaining control of the event at the games.

Earlier, Allyson Felix won a women's track record sixth Olympic gold medal, helping the United States win the 1,600 relay.

Four years after the Bahamas beat the U.S. team, the Americans finished with a time of 2 minutes, 57.30 seconds. The Jamaicans brought the baton home 0.86 seconds later. The defending champion Bahamas took bronze in 2:58.49.

Arman Hall, Tony McQuay and Gil Roberts set up Merritt for the victory. The veteran already has two gold medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and eight world championship gold medals stretching as far back as 2005.

He won bronze in the 400 earlier this week in Rio.

Felix, who also won gold in the 400 relay and silver in the 400 meters, ran the final leg of the race as the Americans won in 3 minutes, 19.06 seconds. Courtney Okolo ran the first leg, followed by Natasha Hastings and Phyllis Francis.

Jamaica took silver and Britain got bronze.

Matthew Centrowitz took the lead in the 1,500-meter race with two laps remaining and held off a late charge from the field to capture gold.

It was the first title in the event for the United States since Mel Sheppard won the metric mile more than 100 years ago at the 1908 London Games.

"Doing my victory lap, I literally kept screaming to everyone I know, 'Are you kidding me?' " Centrowitz said.

He took a brazen approach in a race Saturday that was rather slow at the start. Centrowitz jumped to the front with about two laps to go and only got stronger with the finish line in sight. He finished in 3 minutes, 50 seconds, beating defending champion Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria by 0.11 seconds. Nicholas Willis of New Zealand captured bronze.

After three runners were disqualified from the men's 5,000-meter race, American Bernard Lagat, 41, ended up with a bronze medal.

Lagat became the oldest person in a running event to win a medal at the Olympics. Jamaican great Merlene Ottey was 40 when she won a bronze medal in the 100 and a silver in the 400 relay at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Lagat said "it's hard to imagine. To me, things happen. But I guess if the rules are like that, then whatever decision they want to make, I'm going to accept."

The governing body for track and field said Paul Chelimo, who originally finished second in the race, was disqualified for a lane infringement.

The IAAF said Mohammed Ahmed of Canada and Muktar Edris of Ethiopia also were disqualified for the same reason.

The decision to disqualify the trio allowed Lagat to take bronze behind winner Mo Farah and second-place Hagos Gebrhiwet.

Caster Semenya of South Africa won the women's 800 gold medal, fighting from behind to overtake Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi on the final bend before cruising home.

Semenya won in a South African national record 1 minute, 55.28 seconds, while Niyoinsaba of Burundi was 1.21 seconds behind. Margaret Wambui of Kenya took bronze in 1:56.89.

Semenya has become the unwilling face of the controversial debate in track and field over women with very high levels of testosterone being allowed to compete. She is believed to be one of several female athletes at the Olympics with a condition called hyperandrogenism.

The IAAF last year was forced to drop rules that regulated their testosterone levels.

Thomas Rohler of Germany won his first major title with his penultimate throw of 90.30 meters to clinch the javelin gold medal.

Behind him, Julius Yego of Kenya took silver with a throw of 88.24, despite having to retire injured late in the competition. Defending champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago took bronze with 85.38.

Ruth Beitia won her first major championship at 37, taking gold in the high jump with a leap of 1.97 meters.

The Spaniard took gold on a countback, beating Mirela Demireva of Bulgaria. Blanka Vlasic took bronze..

Sports on 08/21/2016