[1] Russian Olesya Krasnomovets was out hard down the backstretch, passing Britain's Donna Fraser on her outside and opening up a lead over American DeeDee Trotter chasing to the inside.

But Trotter did not let Krasnomovets go, gaining steadily through the second turn and speeding down the final straightaway to draw even by the handoff to Monique Henderson, giving the U.S. the lead.

During the second handoff while in sixth place, Greece's Dimitra Dova was given an inadvertent flat tire by teammate Hrisoula Goudenoudi.

Monique Hennagan left with a clear lead for America, the Russians exchanged cleanly with Natalya Antyukh in hot pursuit.

Hennigan opened up to about 12 meters halfway through the lap, slowing the second half to cross the finish line with just less than a ten-meter advantage in the gold-medal time of 3:19.01.

[4][5] In 2013, both the IAAF and the IOC announced that the result would stand and the American squad (except Cox) would be allowed to retain their gold medals because, according to the rules of the time, a team should not be disqualified because of a doping offense of an athlete who didn't compete in the finals.