Merritt leads American sweep in 400

BEIJING, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- LaShawn Merritt got the best of his rival Thursday and led an American sweep of the Olympic medals in the 400-meter run.

The United States earned six medals in track and field, but the only gold one was won by Merritt, who captured the biggest of his many battles with countryman Jeremy Wariner.

Wariner won the 400 in Athens and was the unquestioned best over that distance until Merritt surprised him with a victory at the American trials last month. Warnier seemed to regain control in races prior to the Olympics, but Merritt turned in a personal best of 43.75 Thursday to beat Wariner by a second.

American David Neville made a dive across the finish line to win the bronze by 0.04 of a second over Christopher Brown of the Bahamas.

Jamaica added to its medal total with Veronica Campbell-Brown winning the 200 for the second straight Olympics and Kerron Stewart adding a bronze to the silver she won in the 100. American Allyson Felix finished second.

Jamaica has collected nine medals in Beijing, two more than it had won in any other single Olympics. All nine of those have come in track and field events of 400 meters or shorter.

Other winners included Cuba's Dayron Robles in the 110-meter hurdles (where Americans David Payne and David Oliver finished second and third), Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic in the javelin throw, Nelson Evora of Portugal in the triple jump and Olga Kaniskina of Russia in the 20-kilometer walk.

The race walk took place in the morning during a driving rainstorm.