LONDON - Usain Bolt anchored Jamaica's 4x100-meter relay team to a new world record on Saturday night, giving him three gold medals at the London Games and furthercementing his status as the greatest sprinter in history.
Bolt had already defended his Olympic titles inthe 100 meters and the 200 meters. He even did a few pushups after the 200 on Thursdayfor show. For his encore on Saturday night, exactly 24 hours before the closing ceremonyfor the London Games, he gave the Olympic Stadium crowd one more spectacle.
The quartet of Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake and Bolt finished in 36.84 seconds, breaking the record of 37.04 - set by Jamaica last year. The United States team of Trell Kimmons, Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay and Ryan Bailey tied the previous mark of 37.04 and won silver. After Canada was disqualified,Trinidad moved up to third.
"I'm going to the city tonight to celebrate," Bolt said after claiming his sixth gold medal intwo Olympics and his first world record of these Games.
After taking the baton from Blake, Bolt blazed past the U.S. anchor, Ryan Bailey. As he neared the finish line, the outcome was no longer in doubt. All that was left was his celebration. Would he put a finger to his lips, as if to silence his doubters, as he had after winning the 200 meters? Or might he send an invisible arrow skyward?
Before the race, Bolt had done his archer routine and flexed his muscles. Maybe he wasjust trying to stay warm. He came onto the track wearing a stocking cap to ward off a cool wind.
But this time, Bolt's post-race celebration wassubdued by his standards. He saluted the crowd and allowed himself to be swallowed up by a few supporters.
The Americans figured to give the Jamaicans all they could handle. In their semifinal on Friday night, the American quartet of Jeffery Demps, Darvis Patton, Kimmons and Gatlin clocked a 37.40, the fourth-fastest time in history

The power of Bolt is evident not only in the ground he covers with every elongated stride but in the attention he commands with every step. And not just from track fansbut from fellow Olympians like Brenda Villa, a gold-medal winning water polo player from the United States, who said, "I think it'spretty amazing when you get people from all over the world wanting to root for one person."
With no host team in the 4x100-meter relay final, the partisan fans at Olympic Stadium were free to cheer Bolt as if he were a Brit, and they deafeningly did, affording him the same roar as their own Mo Farah, who on Saturday night added the 5,000 to his 10,000 title earlier.
Now Bolt's fans must wonder what is next. Will he return to this stage four years from now in Rio?
"I've thought about it," he said after Saturday's race. "I think it's going to be very hard. Yohan is coming through and I'm surea lot of the other young guys are coming up,so I will see what happens in four years."
In the other relay final on Saturday night, theUnited States pulled away for gold in the women's 4x400.
The last time the United States lost an Olympic women's 4x400-meter relay final, in1992, Francena McCorory was 3-years-old. On Saturday night, McCorory ran the third leg for the American squad that continued its dominance in the event.
The quartet of DeeDee Trotter, Allyson Felix, McCorory and Sanya Richards-Ross was timed in 3 minutes 16.87 seconds, well ahead of the silver medalists from Russia (3:20.23). Jamaica took third in 3:20.95.

With an opening leg of 49.57, Trotter handed Felix a lead of several meters, which she expanded with a split of 48.85. McCorory ran a 48.85 split and Richards-Ross came home in 49.07. The previous night, the 4x100 relay, which featured Felix, broke a world record that had stood for 27 years. For a while, it appeared that another bolt might strike out. But in the end, the 24-year-old world record of 3:15.17, set by the Soviet Union, was safe.
For Felix, 26, the relay offered a sense of whatmight have been. Her best time in the 400 meters, a 49.70, would have tied for the silvermedal here but she bypassed the event here in favor of the 100 meters.