Hope Mills Native Quanera Hayes Helps Send USA to Finals of 4×400 Relay
Quanera Hayes – a Hope Mills native, and Gray’s Creek High School graduate – is making the most of her second Olympic Games appearance.
Hayes ran the leadoff spot of the United States women’s 4×400 relay team’s opening round heat, that Team USA ended up finishing in first.
The Americans ran a season-best 3:21.44 in the qualifying heat Friday in Paris. That was over three seconds better than Great Britain, the second-highest qualifier.
Hayes led off with a 51.27 in her leg, handing off to Shamier Little with the Americans in second place. Little ran a 49.22 to put the United States into the lead, and there was no looking back from there.
Aaliyah Butler and Kaylyn Brown ran 50.41 and 50.54 to close out the heat.
The Americans will race for their eighth consecutive Gold Medal in the women’s 4×400 on Saturday. The race can be seen during NBC’s coverage at approximately 3:14 p.m. EDT, or streamed live on NBCOlympics.com.
Having run in the qualifiers, Hayes will now be medal-eligible should the Americans win one.
Hayes notably had previously made the US Olympic Team for the rescheduled 2021 Tokyo Games, after a stunning upset in the women’s 400m final at the U.S. Olympic trials in 2001. She is a 2010 Gray’s Creek graduate, and Hope Mills native.
Hayes finished seventh in the 400 in 2021, so this will be her first shot at an Olympic medal. If she does win it, she’ll be the second athlete from our region to win one in Paris. Sammy Sullivan, a Jack Britt graduate and Army Captain, won Bronze with the United States women’s rugby team.
