It was a blazing finish Sunday night to the 10-day Track and Field Worlds Championships

It was Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene and the stretch run of the initial Track and Field Worlds Championships ever hosted by the United States.

And just days after finishing fifth in the 200-meter finals when University of Kentucky graduate Abby Steiner got the phone call.

“They asked me.” Steiner said, “if I could fill in for Aleia Hobbs on the 4 x 100 relay team, that Hobbs became ill,”

Steiner said everything but whoopy. Yes, she would run the second leg, all she needed was a few baton-pass trials and would be happy to do so.

Done, signed, sealed and delivered. The 22-year-old out of Dublin Cuffman High School and a four-time Wildcats All-America, took the stick in front from lead leg Melissa Jefferson and maintained it, handed off to Jenna Pradini, and the slim lead for anchor Twanisha Terry over Jamaica’s 200-meter winner Sherika Jackson brought gold in 41.14 by 0.4 seconds.

For Steiner, who said she loves running the relays, that there’s always something so fun about working with people who work so hard and that it’s even greater when you’re doing it for the USA, and that was round one after she draped an unexpected gold medal over her.

This was especially remarkable after favored Jamaica had swept the 100 meters and was first and second in the 200.

Next came another late-minute call for Steiner on Friday. Again she was asked if she could take the second leg in the 4 x 400 final from Dalilah Muhammad who was injured during a workout. Yup, sure could, sure would, just another relay that she loves so much.

Once again, it was Steiner on target for another medal, and once again, it came up gold. In the preliminary raced the night before, it was retired Allison Felix taking a call on Thursday and asked if she could fill in.

“Funny,” Felix said, “I was at one of my favorite restaurants, the Halloween Cafe, and downing hot wings with a root beer float, so I dropped the wing and said I would do it. I contacted Bobby (Kersee) my coach, and he said why not. So I caught a flight back to Eugene.”

In the preliminary, the 36-year-old Felix ran third leg, padded the lead and led the USA quartet to a 3:23.38 win, the fastest of the prelims.

Sunday night, it was back to Steiner.

“It’s a bonding experience,” she said, “that you are going to have for the rest of your life, and here I was back in the relays. Wow.”

Once again, Steiner came through. She ran a 47.8 second leg led holding off the Jamaica runner, and handed the stick to Britten Wilson, who turned a slim lead into a runaway after handing off to 400-meter hurdle world record holder Sydney McLaughlin, who this time sped easily to another gold, this time for her and the foursome in 3:17.79, the fastest time ever clocked on United States soil.

“Unreal,” McLaughlin said, “just unreal. I’m just overjoyed.”

So were the American officials who called on Steiner not once, but twice. And this, too, was surprising as the USA had no one in the 400 finals and Jamaica had two.

This was the 33rd USA medal, the14th gold for the United States.

The 13th came right before the ladies’ baton pass, and just after Sweden’s Mondo Duplsntis, who currently resides in Louisiana, broke the world record in the men’s pole vault, with Chris Nilson of the USA placing second.

The men’s 4 x 400 won handily, unlike the second place in the 4 x 100 final when a poor third leg fumble cost the Americans the anchor leg against Canada and brought them silver instead of gold.

But not this time. This quartet raced a well-done 2:56.17, with Goodwin on the lead leg proving the lead, and 400 champion Michael Norman increasing it with a blazing 44.29 leg. It was a 10-second advantage when Champion Allison got the stick and he had no problem bringing it home.

Second was Jamaica in 2:58.54 and next came Belgium in 2:58.72.

This gave the red, white and blue men the championships in the 100, 200, 400 and now the 4 x 400 relay.

It was also an amazing accomplishment by the stars and stripes women after Jamaica swept the 100 meters, the first two places in the 200, and had two finalists in the 400 whereas the USA had none.

There were only two events that the Americans won in both the men’s and women’s fields. That was the women’s shot put won by Chase Ealey and swept by the men’s Ryan Crouster, Joe Kavacs and Josh Awoxunde, and the 4 x 400.

Norman wound up with a pair of gold medals, as did Steiner and McLaughlin.

Other USA women who brought gold were Athing Mu in the 800, Brooke Anderson in the hammer throw, and Katie Nageotte in the pole vault, who had the same height as American runner-up Sandie Morris but had the fewer misses.

A second place went to the United States’ Kara Winger in the javelin. Third places were bronze awarded to Valarie Allman in the discus,Tori Franklin in the triple jump, Janee Kassanavoid in the hammer, Dailiah Muhammed in the 400 hurdles, Anna Hall in the heptalalon, and the mixed 4 x 100 relay.

Count the mixed relay that ran with Felix also on the second leg for both genders, while the other men’s gold medal winner was Grant Holloway in the 110 high hurdles. A second place went to America’s Rai Benjamin in the 400-meter hurdles and a bronze went to Zach Ziemek in the decathlon.

The red, white and blue men and women came away with 14 championships each.

It was for them a wonderful 10-day stay raced on a completely-new, done-up Hayward oval and at all the field event sites, with the picturesque background of the near-by university. It was picture-perfect weather conditions of sunny skies morning and afternoon, and just a slight breeze each night.

It was for the joyful red, white and blue Americans and their fans the closer thing to home, sweet home.