Anchor leg

The anchor leg is the final position in a relay race. Typically, the anchor leg of a relay is given to the fastest or most experienced competitor on a team. The athlete completing the anchor leg of a relay is responsible for making up ground on the race-leader or preserving the lead already secured by their teammates. An anchor leg is typically part of a running relay, but may also be part of swimming, skiing or relays.

"Bullet" Bob Hayes ran anchor leg for the United States 4×100 metres relay team in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Receiving the baton in fifth place, Hayes pulled ahead of four runners to win the race. A French rival, Jocelyn Delecour, remarked to the American lead-off runner Paul Drayton "You haven't got anything except Hayes", and Drayton responded "That's all we need, pal".

Carl Lewis never lost a race when he anchored the American 4×100 m relay team. He regularly ran under 9 seconds for his anchor legs and helped the team break the world record in the 4×100 m relay five times. The record set by the U.S. at the 1992 Summer Olympics of 37.40 seconds stood for 16 years.

Anchoring the U.S. sprint relay team at the 1984 Summer Olympics, Evelyn Ashford ran a reported 9.77 seconds, the fastest time ever for a woman over 100 metres. The U.S. team of Alice Brown (first leg), Jeanette Bolden (second leg) and Chandra Cheeseborough (third leg) won by the biggest margin in the event's history.

In some cases, athletes who are not top performers in individual events excel when given the responsibility of anchoring a relay. Phil Brown, a U.K. 400 m runner, won Olympic, World and European championship medals as the anchor leg runner for his national 4 x 400 m relay team despite never having won a medal and rarely having advanced beyond the preliminary rounds individually. Although she placed 8th individually in the 100 m, Pam Marshall ran the anchor leg for the American 4 x 100 m team at the 1987 World Athletics Championships in Rome and beat Marlies Göhr in the final with an anchor leg timed at 10.11 s to Gohr's 10.41 s.

...
Wikipedia