Aug. 23, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM - Despite entering the finals of the 4x400-meter relay with the fastest qualifying time, fifth-year senior Michael Bingham and the Great Britain relay team could not hold off the powerful U.S. squad and wound up finishing fourth Saturday at the Bird's Nest in Beijing.

For the second straight day, Bingham ran the third leg of the relay. The Great Britain team, behind Bingham's blistering 44.50 split in the prelims, ran a season-best 2:59.33 on Friday. Even though the Brits bettered that mark with a 2:58.81 in the finals, the team finished out of the medals.

The Americans took the gold behind strong performances from 400-meter gold medalist LaShawn Merritt and Jeremy Wariner. The U.S. set a new Olympic record with a time of 2:55.39.

The Bahamas crossed the line in 2:58.03, edging out the Russians for the silver medal by just .03 seconds.

NBC will air the race Saturday night in its Olympic coverage beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Bingham will return to Wake Forest this fall, where he is a two-time All-American and a two-time ACC-Champion in the 400-meter dash. He has also earned All-ACC honors during the indoor and outdoor campaigns all three years at Wake.