DSU alumnus Ramon Miller anchors the Bahamas to Olympic gold medal in 1,600 relay

• Ramon Miller

Bahamas' Ramon Miller, a Dickinson State alumnus, beats United States' Angelo Taylor across the line to win the men's 1,600-meter relay during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on Friday.
• Teammates mob Miller

Bahamas men's 1,600-meter relay team Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller celebrate their victory during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on Friday. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
• Ramon Miller

Bahamas' Ramon Miller, left, and Angelo Taylor of the United States compete in the men's 4x400-meter relay final during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
• Miller beats Taylor

Bahamas' Ramon Miller, left, beats Angelo Taylor of the United States as he crosses the finish line to win gold in the men's 4x400-meter relay final during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

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• Ramon Miller's gold-medal winning run

LONDON — Dickinson State can now count an Olympic gold medalist among its alumni.

Ramon Miller made history for his home country of the Bahamas on Friday night at the Summer Olympics, running the anchor leg of the 1,600-meter relay team that won the nation’s first gold medal in men’s track and field at Olympic Stadium.

Miller trailed Angelo Taylor of the United States until the final turn, when he turned on a big kick and sprinted past Taylor to the finish line. There, he fell to the track and was mobbed by his relay teammates, Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder and Michael Mathieu.

The Bahamas ran a national-record time of 2 minutes, 56.72 seconds to beat the Americans, who lost the race at the Olympics for the first time since 1984. The U.S. took the silver medal with a time of 2:57.05. Trinidad and Tobago took third.

Miller’s split was 44.1 seconds, which would have been a new personal-best time had it come in an open 400.

“To be able to do that, on a historic day for the Bahamas, to be the one to help that happen, it’s just a day he’ll never forget,” DSU track and field head coach Pete Stanton said. “And obviously we’re very proud and very happy for him here. This is as big as it gets.”

At DSU, a handful of staff members — including President D.C. Coston — watched the race on a big screen in Wienbergen Hall.

“I couldn’t be any happier and prouder of Ramon,” Stanton said. “You couldn’t write a better script for what happened there.”

Taylor was handed a 10-meter lead when he received the baton, but Miller chipped away. By the final stretch, Miller had passed him.

Miller, a 12-time NAIA champion at DSU, won an Olympic silver medal while he was still a student.

As an alternate member of the Bahamas 1,600 relay team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Miller competed in a preliminary round but did not run in the finals.

In London, he finished 10th overall in the 400 meters, missing the final round. Brown was fourth in the finals while Pinder took seventh.

Until Friday, it was a disappointing turn for the Bahamas team that entered the Olympics with so much hope.

Miller ran the opening leg of the relay in the qualifying rounds and had the slowest time of the four.

The U.S. was running without two of its biggest quarter-mile stars. The Americans had won gold the previous eight times they had competed, missing out only at the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.

Taylor, a two-time gold medalist in the 400-meter hurdles, was thrust into the lineup after a flurry of injuries hit the Americans. Lashawn Merritt and Jeremy Wariner both pulled out before the preliminaries.

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