Jamaicans bomb US sprint base
Campbell defends women’s 200m title:
Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from China
Jamaica bombed the American power house in Olympic sprints accounting
for both men’s and women’s 100 and 200m sprint doubles at the XX1Xth
summer Olympiad continued at the Bird’s Nest here today.
Following the golden man’s sprint double of Usain Bolt and Shelly
Anne Frazer’s emergence as the fastest woman at the Beijing Games, it
was Ver¢nica Campbell Brown who sealed the US ‘sprint coffin’ with a
majestic dash in women’s 200m under lights.
Defending Olympic champion Campbell Brown, who won Athens 200m gold
in 22.05 seconds, retained the crown with a majestic 21.74 seconds run
to secure the gold. Thus, Jamaica made a clean sweep to win all four
100m and 200m sprint golds that were on offer at the Beijing Olympics.
There were many who put their bets on American Allyson Felix, who
came to the Chinese capital brimming with confidence as the back to back
gold medallists at the last two World Championships in Helsinki 2005 and
Osaka 2007. But the American lass could only retain the silver she won
in Athens four years ago.
Stewart was the quickest into her stride and was ahead at the bend.
As the athletes entered the home straight, Campbell-Brown moved to the
front and extended her lead down the final 50m. It was a disappointing
performance by Felix, who failed to find her rhythm, watching
Campbell-Brown racing away for the second time in the Olympic Games.
Felix settled for the silver in 21.93 seconds while Campbell’s team
mate Kerron Stewart won the bronze returning in exactly 22 seconds.
Campbell-Brown and her Jamaican teammates will now be hyper-confident
of adding more medals from the women’s 4 x 100m relay, in which they are
the defending Olympic champions.
Following the shocking blows from Jamaicans, the USA made another
blunder in the batton change of men’s 4 x 100m relay to add salt to
their own injuries.
A US victory seemed a mere formality as Darvis Patton approached
Tyson Gay on the final changeover but the pair made a mess of it and the
baton tumbled to the floor.
The Americans were dreaming of their 16th gold medal in 4X100m relay,
looking forward to make up for their shock Athens Games loss to Great
Britain.
Former World Championship gold medallist Gay has endured a miserable
Olympics after failing to reach the 100 meters final. Medal prospects
Nigeria also failed to get the baton round along with South Africa and
Poland.
Trinidad and Tobago has qualified first in heat 1 of the men’s 4x100m
relay in 38.26 seconds, while Jamaica won heat 2 in 38.31.
Also qualifying among the top three in each heat 1 are Japan in
38.52, Canada at 38.77, the Netherlands with 38.87, and Germany at
38.93. China with 39.13 and Brazil at 39.0 qualified with the next two
with fastest timings.
The only consolation for the Amaricans was in the men’s 400m final
when LeShawn Merritt bagged the gold medal in 43.75 seconds, his
personal best. The silver was won by Jeremy Wariner, the race favorite
who lagged well back at 44.74 seconds, while David Neville finished
strong and dove across the finish line to record 44.8.
Cuban Dayron Robles won men’s 110m hurdles gold in 12.93 seconds -
just 0.06 seconds off the world record he set in June. The 21-year-old
world record holder now marks his first Olympics with a maiden gold
medal.
Americans David Payne (13.17) and David Oliver (13.18) won silver and
bronze medals respectively. Ladji Doucoure of France, the 2005 world
champion, was placed fourth.
Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic has won women’s javelin throw
gold clearing 71.42m, a feat which makes her one of only two women in
history have thrown over the 70m mark.
Nelson Evora of Portugal accounted for the men’s triple jump with a
leap of 17.67m. Phillips Idowu of Great Britain had 17.62m, which was
good enough for the silver, ahead of Leevan Sands of Bahamas - bronze
with a jump of 17.59m.
BEIJING, Thursday |