US runners send Olympic message but Dixon hit in eye

US runners sent a message to rivals ahead of the Beijing Olympics with impressive relay triumphs Saturday at the 114th Penn Relays despite an injury to sprinter Leroy Dixon.

Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards anchored 4x100 and 4x400 relay triumphs for US women while Jeremy Wariner did the same for the US men in the 4x400, serving notice the Americans will again by a major force in relays at the Olympics.

"We're ready," Richards said. "We want to sweep the relays like we did at the worlds in 2007 and we're going to work really hard to do it this year."

But disaster struck the strongest US men's squad in the 4x100 relay as the same team that won world gold last year at Osaka fell victim to a freak accident.

Dixon was the leadoff man for USA Red in the men's 4x100-meter relay and was struck in his left eye by neighboring Canadian runner Charles Allen as each went to make his exchange.

"I don't actually know what happened. It was either his hand hit me in his eye or his fist," Dixon said. "It hit me in my pupil. He scratched my pupil and I have an ulcer in my eye. It's infected on my pupil. It's blurry. I can't keep it open."

USA Red also included US stars Tyson Gay, Wallace Spearmon and Doc Partton and recovered to finish fourth behind winner Jamaica but Dixon was taken from Franklin Field, as 49,831 spectators watched, to be examined by doctors.

"He had a gash down his face. They had a towel on it. He was bleeding some," Spearmon said. "I was proud of him. He grabbed his eye and handed me the stick.

"Hopefully the lanes (at Beijing) won't be so tight. I had to slow down and readjust to get the stick and put it in position so Tyson could take it to the finish."

Treble world champion Gay could do little but carry the baton across the line and prepare for his next race next week at Jamaica.

"By the time I got the stick, it seemed like Jamaica had already crossed the finish line," Gay said. "I was definitely trying to catch them. They had a huge lead. It seemed like once I got the stick, there was only 50m and the race was over.

"I ran anchor because it may be a possibility that I may run anchor at the Olympics."

Jamaica, which did not feature 100-meter world record-holder Asafa Powell, won the 4x100 title in 39.04 seconds.

Marvin Anderson, Michael Frater, Nesta Carter and Dwight Thomas edged USA Blue - John Capel, Xavier Carter, Michael Rodgers and Shawn Crawford - by one-tenths of a second with Trinidad and Tobago third in 39.33.

"It's a huge confidence booster for us," Frater said. "We didn't have Asafa Powell with us. We specially wanted to show that even though we didn't have the best sprinter in the world we could still compete against a very good US team."

The US 4x400 women's relay of Richards, Felix, Natasha Hastings and Mary Wineburg won in 3:22.16, defeating Jamaica by 5.80 seconds with the best time in the world this year and a meet record, .77 under the US mark from 2005.

"Allyson ran great, Nat ran well and I was just able to open it up on the final leg," Richards said. "It's an indicator of how strong we are.

"This is the early part of the season, when you get a chance to put a lot of work in, see where you are. I've done very very little speed work in practice, so to run well today, I was very, very happy with that."

Wariner brought home LaShawn Merritt, Spearmon and Darold Williamson in 2:59.71 to win for USA Blue with the USA Red team of Xavier Carter, Bershawn Jackson, Kerron Clement and Angelo Taylor second in 3:01.12 and Jamaica third in 3:02.00.

"We ran a great race. We have a great team," Wariner said. "No telling what we will be able to do at the Olympics this year."

For Wariner, that includes a run at Michael Johnson's 400m world record.

"I want to be the first to break his record and run 42 seconds. I'm working hard to get to that point," Wariner said. "I know my race has to be perfect to get it. I can't slip up on one thing. In my eyes, we see little things I need to improve on. Every race I go into, one of my goals is to run for the record."

Felix anchored USA Red teammates Lauryn Williams, Miki Barber and Lisa Barber to victory in the women's 4x100 relay in 42.57 seconds with USA Blue - Muna Lee, Torri Edwards, Carmelita Jeter and Richards - second in 42.64 and Jamaica third in 43.31.

"I was pleased with the way I did today," Felix said. "I felt the 4x100 went well. It was a pleasure for me."

Jamaica won the women's sprint relay - two 200m legs, a 400 and an 800 - in 3:37.61 while Kenya took the men's distance relay in 9:29.79.