Nineteens battle for men’s 400m:

James jams Luguelin to sport gold

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from England

A gold medal at the age of 19 years, pole vault world champion losing the gold once more after 2011 World championship defeat and a gold medal from a hurdler whose home fans though he should retire - these were some of the headline performances that were dished out at the Olympic Stadium, on the fourth day of the athletic competition last night.

Most important of them all was that blistering performance by Kirani James. Becoming an Olympic sprint champion at the age of 19 years is definitely something extraordinary and this is what exactly James performed as he stormed to men's 400m gold medal at the Olympic Stadium here last night.

Once again there was a packed stadium to witness the fourth day's track and field action of the London 2012 Olympic Games and a day after sprinter Usain Bolt of Jamaica stunned the world with a new Olympic record in men's 100m final, James became the star attraction as he ran to a new national record of 43.94 seconds in the event better remembered as ‘the Michael Johnson event’ after the great American sprint merchant who was the undisputed king to win both the men's 200m and 400m.

It was James all the way in the men's 400m final as one of the other competitors were nowhere close to catching the teenager from Grenada down the home straight as he crossed the line well ahead of another 19-year-old, Luguelin Santos (44.46) of the Dominican Republic. Trinidadian Lalonde Gordon (a personal best 44.52) took the bronze. “'The whole place will be going crazy right now. I am so excited,” the teenage sensation, who gave Grenada its first ever Olympics medal said.

Felix Sanchez of Dominican Republic may not have improved since his gold medal winning performance at the Athens Olympic Games eight years ago but the identical timing of 47.63 seconds was good enough for him to win the men's 400m hurdles gold medal once again at the London 2012 Games.

The event had been billed as a battle between world number one Javier Culson and Britain's world champion Dai Greene, but Sanchez stormed to victory in 47.63 - the same time with which he won the title in Athens in 2004.

“It's going to be huge celebration back home. They expected my World Championship wins in 2001 and 2003, but no-one expected me to win the an Olympic gold in London. ‘A lot of people said I should retire but I stuck with it,” Sanchez said after his grand feat.

American Michael Tinsley took a surprise silver medal in a personal best of 47.91, with Culson forced to settle for bronze and Greene down in fourth. ‘It was a very bad run on my behalf,’ said Culson, who won Puerto Rico's first ever Olympic Athletics medal. “I'm not pleased with it at all. I lost my rhythm towards the end of the race and I couldn't get it back. I send my apologies to the people back home, but at least I made it to the final,”.

But the biggest disappointment was defending Olympic champion Elena Isinbaeva who ultimately had to settle for bronze medal in women's pole vault final. Even then, it was some kind of celebration for the 30-year-old Russian world record holder after failing to secure a medal at last year's IAAF World Championships in Daegu. South Korea.

American Jennifer Suhr became an instant hero as she claimed gold on countback from Cuban Yarisley Silva after both had cleared 4.75m, with Isinbaeva clearing 4.70m. “I am really happy, it's like a gold medal for me. I think this tells me “Don't quit” as I planned to after London,” Isinbaeva said. Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus won gold medal in women's putt shot final, ahead of New Zealand's Valerie Adams after dominating the competition with four throws over 21m. “I'm very happy,’ she said. ‘It's my third Olympic Games and it's been a long road to get to this gold medal. This is to everyone in Belarus, I would like to say a huge thank you to all of them,” she said. Yuliya Zaripova won the 3,000m Steeplechase in a new personal best of 9:06.72. The Russian was an impressive winner, streaking clear down the home straight to cross the line ahead of Tunisia's Habiba Ghribi. Ethiopian Sofia Assefa took bronze.

Campriani, 50m shooting champ

Meanwhile, Italy'a Niccolo Campriani accounted for the gold medal in the men's 50m rifle three-position event. Engineering student Campriani won silver in the 10m Air Rifle earlier in the Games and went one better on the final day of competition at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

The destination of the gold was never in doubt after Campriani started the final with an eight-point lead having smashed the Olympic record in qualifying with a score of 1180 - and he finished six points clear with a combined Olympic best.

But there was drama behind him, American Matt Emmons lying second with a 1.6-point lead with one round to go. However, he produced the worst shot of the final, a 7.6, allowing South Kirean Kim Jonghyun to snatch silver with a 10.4. Emmons took bronze, with Cyril Graff of France just 0.3 behind.

“It's never over until it's over,’ Emmons said. ‘Anytime you can be on the podium at the Olympics is a pretty cool thing. After the last shot I looked down and thought “hey, I got bronze, cool. If I'm nervous and make a mistake then I make a mistake, and that's what happened,Ó’ he said.

Men’s VB ‘quarters’

Quarter finalists who will figure in men's volleyball competition have been found. Defending champions the USA will meet Italy in the quarter-finals of the men's volleyball competition after the round-robin games were concluded. Alan Knipe's men wrapped their round-robin campaign up with a 3-0 win against Tunisia to top Pool B, while Italy finished fourth in Group A. Bulgaria topped their pool after winning a straight shoot-out with Italy today and will face Germany - 3-0 losers to Brazil, although they did rest star man Gyorgy Grozer. Poland were runners-up to Bulgaria despite losing to Australia this morning and will meet Russia, while Brazil and Argentina will also square up. Australia, Great Britain, Serbia and Tunisia are the four sides to make an early exit. Hosts Great Britain went down to a 0-3 defeat against Argentina while Russia were straight-sets winners over Serbia.

Russia's Maxim Mikhaylov ended the group stage as the leading scorer with 93 points, just two more than Australia's Thomas Edgar. Germany's Markus Steuerwald was rated as the competition's best libero, while Russia's tall Marko Padrascanin returned a top-scoring 81 blocks.

In the men's volleyball quarter finals scheduled for Wednesday, Bulgaria will meet Germany while Poland takes on Russia. In the bottom half ‘quarters'. Argentina will meet Brazil while USA takes on Italy.

LONDON, Tuesday.