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| Wednesday, 25 August 2004 |
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Wariner takes 400 m Gold Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Greece ATHENS, Tuesday - The United States continues to maintain their long-standing supremacy in men's 400m event, even years after the retirement of super star Michael Johnson, who dominated in his pet event for almost a decade. It was just this that was evident last night on day 11 of the XXV111th summer Olympiad here. The USA made a clean sweep in men's 400m with three of their emerging stars securing all the medals that were on offer. Two of them came with their personal best while the third had a season's best, which speaks volumes for their dominance and the high pace that the race went. Joining the galaxy of American stars who have been dominating in Olympic track events was 20-year-old Jeremy Wariner who bagged men's 400m gold medal with a career best timing - exactly 44 seconds. The USA has been undisputed champions in this event for the last two decades and it is for the fourth time in the Olympic history that the USA made a clean sweep in this event winning all three medals with the previous such feats coming in Seoul 1988, Mexico City 1968 and St. Louis 1904. Wariner is the sixth successive American to win men's 400m in the last six Olympics after Michel Johnson (Sydney 2000 and Atlanta 1996), Quincy Watts (Barcelona 1992), Steve Lewis (Seoul 1988) and Alonzo Babers (Los Angeles 1984). Of the 25 Olympics in which men's 400m was worked off, the USA has won the gold medal on 17 occasions and the last non-American to win a gold medal in this event was Russian Viktor Markin in Moscow 1980. It is an event tagged at Michael Johnson event named after the world (43.18) and Olympic (43.49) record holder. The youngest of the men's 400m finalists, Wariner turned out to be the fastest in a eye catching final. He proved to be very strong in the final straight and held off the attack of his two team mates. The silver medal went to Otis Harris who clocked a personal best 44.16 seconds while his US compatriot Derrick Brew clocked 44.42 seconds to take the bronze. The 2004 world indoor champion Alleyne Francique, who was the only medal hope for Grenada, finished fourth in 44.66 seconds. The three Jamaican finalists - Brandon Simpson (44.76), Davian Clarke (44.83) and Michael Blackwood (45.55) had a tough time in facing the American challenge, though the first two came out with their personal best timings. Wariner said world champion Johnson is his idol. "There are many athletes who want to be like him, but that's not easy. This is a very difficult event and take a lot of effort to be a world class athlete. Nothing should be taken for granted. Commending on being labelled the fastest white man in the world, Jeremy Wariner said that he had listened to that since his high school days but the colour does not matter. "It does not matter whether you are black or white. What matters is to reach your top potential," a humble champion said. It was a day of celebration for the hosts Greece too as they collected a surprise gold medal in women's 20km walk, brushing, aside Russian and Australian challenge. Home star Athanasia Tsoumeleka proved all pre race predictions to be wrong as she breasted the tape first in women's 20km walk with a personal best timing of one hour, 29 minutes and 12 seconds. Russian Olimpiada Ivanova (1:29.16) took the silver. Australian Jane Saville (1:29.25), who was dramatically disqualified just before entering the Sydney Olympic Stadium for the final lap when in the gold medal position four years ago, took the bronze. The turning point of the race came in the eighth lap, between the 16th and 18th km, when a sudden increase in the pace caused the remaining group of eight leaders to burst. But Africans continued their long distance dominance in women's 5,000m final with Ethiopian Meseret Defer winning the gold medal in 14 minutes, 45.65 seconds, while her team mate Tirunesh Dibara (14:51.83) had to settle for the bronze behind the Kenyan silver medalist Isdabella Ochichi (14:48.19). In the only other track final worked off last night at the Olympic Stadium, Great Britain's Kelly Holmes clocked a season's best one minute and 56.38 seconds to bag the women's 800m gold medal while Hasna Benhassi (MAR) set a new national record for her country to take the silver in 1:56.43). Hungarian Robert Fazekas set a new Olympic record in winning men's discus throw final. He cleared 70.93 to erase German Lars Riedel's mark of 69.40 set in Atlanta Games eight years ago, but still fell well short of world record of Jurgen Schult (74.08) set 18 years ago. An area record leap of 15.30m was good enough to let Etone Mbango of Cameroon to get in to the top slot of the victory podium in women's triple jump. Coming in for the silver medal was Greek Hrysopiyi Devetzi (15.25) who jumped all over before her home crowd in jubilation at the victory ceremony. Jamican Veronica Campbell positioned herself as the favourite for women's 200m following the quarter finals where she easily edged past Debbie Ferguson of Bahamas in the first heat that produced the fastest timing. Campbell (22.49) and Ferguson (22.53) had fastest timings ahead of Kim Gevaert (22.68). |
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