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The 100m final gave some clue as to what would follow in the sprint relay. With Carl Lewis (gold), Leroy Burrell (silver) and Dennis Mitchell (bronze) in the team in addition to Andre Cason, the Americans were always going to start favourites.
When you factor in the times those men ran in the individual final - Lewis a new world record of 9.86secs, Burrell a personal best of 9.88secs and Mitchell a PB of 9.91secs - maybe the world record was no shock.
But the relay can always go wrong. Batons can be dropped, changeovers messed up.
Even bearing in mind that the Tokyo track was the fastest ever - and was subsequently found to be harder (and thus quicker) than IAAF rules allowed - the team's time of 37.50secs was a scintillating display, capped by Carl Lewis' anchor leg. It knocked a huge 17/100s of a second off the old world record.
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Carl Lewis seals victory and a new world record
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