l LONDON

The United States came within a whisker of breaking one of the oldest records in athletics when they set the fastest qualifying time in the heats of the women's 4x100 metres relay at the London Olympics yesterday.

With the stadium still buzzing after Kenya's David Rudisha broke the 800 metres world record, former world champion Lauryn Williams joined forces with Tianna Madison, Jeneba Tarmoh and Bianca White to anchor the American "B" team across the line in 41.64 seconds.

The time was 0.04 seconds outside the Olympic record set by East Germany at the 1980 Moscow Games and 0.27 outside the world record set by East Germany in 1985.

The Americans could threaten both records in today's final when world champion Carmelita Jeter and Olympic 200 gold medallist Allyson Felix will be called in to strengthen the team after skipping the preliminaries.

"I know they're going to get the gold tomorrow. All they have got to do is to get the sticks around tight," Williams told reporters.

"This is a great team we have put

together. Don't blink, you might miss the race."

Despite having more depth in women's sprinting than any other country, the US have not won the Olympic title since 1996.

They were beaten on merit Sydney 12 years ago but paid the price for messing up their baton exchanges at Athens and Beijing.

"We practised until we were blue in the face. Everybody practised every place in case of an emergency," Williams said.

"I've been practising in my sleep. I've been throwing back my hand all day long."

Jamaica, who loom as the biggest threat to the US, finished second to Ukraine, bronze medallists at last year's world championships in South Korea, in their heat and fourth overall after an awkward handover but got through unscathed.

Trinidad and Tobago posted the second fastest time behind the Americans and European champions Germany were sixth.

The only major casualty were Russia, gold medallists in Beijing four years ago when the US and Jamaica both fumbled the baton.

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