USA vs. The World athlete quotes

Women's 4x100 quotes

SHELLY-ANN FRASER, Jamaica - "First of all, we represented ourselves well enough. It was a team that was not our strongest, but we did our best. We always try to compete to the best of our ability and try to make it work. I'm not disappointed at all, because you win some and lose some. USA was the best on the day. They delivered and executed a proper race. I'm used to coming in second and third and also winning. It just shows we have to work harder as a team."

LAURYN WILLIAMS, USA first leg: "I think it was a great race. Great weather, great conditions. I'm in my home state, so it's a happy place to me. I said let's not put everything on the line. Let's get the stick around and do what you know how to do from elementary school on up. I made up the stagger a little bit. I was just excited to be out there. There was definitely a little chip on my shoulder, still, that said I had to represent. To the point of me being stressed out, it wasn't like that."

CARMELITA JETER, USA anchor leg: "It was a great race. This was my first time being on the red team. I was very excited to be on the team with these women. We had fun. Don't stress, don't worry, just get the stick around. It's a great season starter for both the men's and the women's teams, to forget about 08 and go into 09 with aggression, with confidence and ready to run. We definitely are excited this year. The fans in the corner were great. The American fans were screaming. When Mechelle Lewis came around the corner, I just did my thing. I did my six strides and threw my hand back. "

Women's 4x400m relay

SANYA RICHARDS, Team USA anchor leg: "The race was really great. Jamaica had a great, great team on paper. Allyson Felix ran great and Natasha ran without a spike for the whole race. I am so pleased with all my teammates. We were all motivated by Beijing. We wanted to prove that we are the best team in the world. Even though I wasn't on the 4x100, I felt like I was. I feel motivated and amped. I can't wait to go back to practice this week."

NATASHA HASTINGS, Team USA second leg: "I was so caught up in not having my shoe ... the ladies went out and held it down. I just wanted to keep the stick in the lead. I didn't want to let anyone down. I will say, when it came off (the shoe) I thought to stop but then I said, with everyone that is running, I can't stop. I have to go."

ALLYSON FELIX, Team USA third leg: "It was great. Just running here, with the crow, crowd is really amazing. The rivalry with Jamaica is very motivating. (On Beijing) It was, in a sense, a wake-up call. Sometimes we take things for granted. Everyone wants to step their game up. Going into these Worlds, we're going to see a lot of that."

Men's 4x400m relay:

ANGELO TAYLOR, Team USA second leg: "My race went fairly well. Warming up, I felt really good, and Kerr on popped it off with a good lead. I wanted to do my part and keep on with it. I just wanted to give a good show, especially with all the Jamaicans in the stands. I really wanted to show them up."

DAVID NEVILLE, Team USA third leg: "I think it was a pretty good race. It was my first time this year running a 400. It was pretty good for a first race. I'm happy about it. I keep getting ready for the rest of the season. I think it's a really good thing. We were able to come out here and showcase our talents. Everybody came out here and had a great day today. We're Team USA, the # 1 team in the world. For us to be able to come out here and do what we did speaks highly of our team."

LASHAWN MERRITT, Team USA anchor leg: "I felt good coming out. I knew I had a strong team. I got the stick, I knew Chris was kind of right behind me, so I played it smart and pretty much made him run out of gas. I let him run up on me and then kicked. I wanted to see how hard I could kick coming down the home stretch. It went well."

Men's 4x100 quotes

DARVIS PATTON, USA anchor leg: "Mainly we wanted to go out and have fun and have safe passes. Yesterday we had some good sticks, and we knew if we could replicate that today, we'd do a good job."

The crowd here always shows up. With all the hype from Jamaica having great success at the Olympics, I knew it would be even more exciting.

SHAWN CRAWFORD, USA third leg: "The main thing was to get the stick around. Before we went out there, Davis said nobody ever ran 38 on this track before. I said man, let's go for 37. We've got the horses, let's do it. This is American soil. I felt like it was war, we can't let anybody come in here and take the victory from me. The thing was just developing chemistry amongst the four teammates we had. We didn't stretch out the [exchange] zones as much as we liked to. It's not a revenge thing, but it's a nice thing to win on your home turf. The thing that happened in Beijing, dropping the stick, we're trying to prevent that from happening. It doesn't matter how fast you are if the stick doesn't get around."

On competing against Jamaica: "I knew it was going to be crump. They're crump all year 'round. Jamaica would come out and represent at the Penn Relays. [Losing in Beijing] It boosted the Americans up a little bit that we can't be content and tries to get back on top, where we should be. Beijing It boosted up the Jamaicans and the Americans. The performance of the Jamaicans at Beijing that inspirited the world. It inspired me."

TRAVIS PADGETT, USA second leg: "We had good handoffs in practice. When I saw Dixie [Walter Dix] come out there and blow it open, I knew it was going to be a good race. My handoff with Dixie could have been better."

WALTER DIX, USA first leg: "I went out there and tried to get a good start. I knew if I got a clean start out of the blocks, all we'd have to do is hold on, and that's what we did. For meeting up once before, the day before, and running that good, the chemistry was as good as it's going to get. We came out and broke the record and nobody's in peak performance yet. That says something. When I looked up at the clock, I said, that's a record. To run that fast, it just means everybody is on pace to do what we need to do at Worlds. The handoffs definitely were cautious. I saw some handoffs yesterday with me and Travis that we weren't so sure of, so we definitely played it cautious."

Men's DMR quotes

JOSEPHAT KITHII, Kenya: "It was very nice for me because this was my second race since last year. Today it was better than last year. It was a nice race. It's great to race in America."

NATE BRANNEN, Canada anchor leg: "I got a little aggressive with 300 to go and I lost it at the last second... We came here knowing we had the two strongest middle legs with maybe a good anchor. We were looking forward to coming after it. We came in for the win. Unfortunately we got second, but we had a great experience."

LOPEZ LOMONG, USA White anchor leg (3^rd place) - "My leg went really well. This is my first race here. The fans were great. I got a little excited, once I closed the gap with the front guys. It was a little back and forth."

Women's Sprint Medley Relay

KENIA SINCLAIR, Jamaica: "Today was a very exciting race. It was the first USA vs. the World (relay for Jamaica on Saturday, which did not contest the distance medley relay). Due to the Olympic Games, this was more like Jamaica vs. USA instead of USA vs. the World. We had three Olympians and decided we would give it everything we had. I tried to do my best, and I think my best was just good enough. Training has been going good; my coach thought I could run 1:57. I think this was our best chance of winning a relay today against the USA, so we wanted to start it good for the rest of the team. I knew the world record was based on the 800 leg. With the 800, I knew it was 52.1 for the 400 and 2-flat for the 800, so I thought if I could run 1:58 we would finish in 3:36 or 3:35. 3:34 was very surprising, until I finished and heard what I split. My coach has been training me to make my last 200 my strongest 200."