A golden hat trick

By Helene Elliott

Aug. 12, 2012 12 AM PT

LONDON —

Usain Bolt charmed the world during the Olympics and won his third gold medal Saturday by anchoring a world-record 400-meter relay performance, but still he was nearly denied one prize.

It was a modest request -- all he wanted was the yellow baton he and his Jamaican teammates had carried around the Olympic Stadium track in 36.84 electrifying seconds, but a stubborn race official refused.

“He was saying I couldn’t keep it because it’s the rules,” Bolt said, bending his fingers to put “rules” in quotation marks. “He actually told me if I didn’t give it back I would be disqualified. That was kind of weird. So I gave it back.”

In his only loss here Bolt walked away empty-handed ... but not for long. Someone with a sympathetic soul later gave him the baton to pack up with his three medals and an affirmation of his status as a legend.

After repeating as champion in the 100 and 200, Bolt also helped defend Jamaica’s relay title, teaming with Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and Yohan Blake to beat an American squad that passed the baton cleanly in a national-record time of 37.04 seconds. Canada came home third but was disqualified because of a lane violation, giving the bronze to Trinidad and Tobago (38.12).

“We tried to hold off Bolt but it was tough,” said Tyson Gay, who earned his first Olympic medal by running the third leg, after Trell Kimmons and Justin Gatlin and before Ryan Bailey. “We gave it our best.”

Their best wasn’t good enough against Jamaica, which rarely uses Bolt as the anchor. Blake said the team’s extraordinary effort was “not normal ... I’m from Mars,” prompting Bolt to suggest he stop talking before someone put him in a straitjacket. That might be the only way to stop the Jamaicans.

Allyson Felix of Los Angeles will leave London with three gold medals too. And although she and her teammates on the 1,600-meter relay didn’t set a world record on Saturday, they won so easily it was almost surreal.

DeeDee Trotter, Felix, Francena McCorory and Sanya Richards-Ross were timed in 3 minutes 16.87 seconds, well ahead of Russia (3:20.23) and Jamaica (3:20.95). “It felt like I was on a victory lap, because they gave me such a big lead,” said Richards-Ross, who previously won gold in the 400 and reached the 200 final. “Being able to prance around the track one more time at these phenomenal Games was really special.”

Felix ran her leg in 47.8 seconds, stunningly fast after she had run three rounds to reach the finals of the 100, three to win the 200 and a leg in both triumphant relay finals.

“I couldn’t have asked for a greater Olympics and I couldn’t have had a better way to end it,” said Felix, the first American woman to win both relays in one Olympics since Chandra Cheeseborough in 1984.

The 1,600 medal was the ninth gold and 29th overall won here by the U.S. track and field team, one more gold and 11 more medals than Russia, with only the men’s marathon remaining on Sunday.

The track and field team -- which also won a silver medal Saturday with Brigetta Barrett’s runner-up finish in the high jump -- has contributed a significant portion of Team USA’s 44 gold medals and 102 total medals. That’s six more gold medals and 15 total more than China.

“I do think that it’s important for us to be the No. 1 team,” said Trotter, the bronze medalist in the 400.

Russia’s Mariya Savinova added the Olympic 800-meter title to her world title, winning in a season-best 1:56.19. Caster Semenya of South Africa made a strong late push to finish second in 1:57.23 and Ekaterina Poistogova was third in a personal-best 1:57.53. Alysia Johnson Montano of the U.S. finished fifth in 1:57.93.

Barrett won silver in the long jump with a personal best of 6 feet 8 inches. Anna Chicherova of Russia took gold with a jump of 6 feet 8 3/4 inches, and Svetlana Shkolina of Russia was third after clearing 6-8, but with one more miss than Barrett.

Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Organizing Committee and a vice president of track and field’s international governing body, said he has no objections to Bolt’s showmanship. “I think it’s fine. It’s him,” Coe said.

“We’re not a sport of automatons. God spare me from a sort of robotic approach to life.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

twitter.com/helenenothelen

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Track

Men’s javelin throw

G Keshorn Walcott Trinidad & Tobago 277-6

S Oleksandr Pyatnytsya Ukraine 277-3

B Antti Ruuskanen Finland 276-0

Men’s 5000m

G Mo Farah Britain 13:41.66

S Dejen Gebremeskel Ethiopia 13:41.98