Usain Bolt completed the Beijing Olympics as
the king of sprint with a third gold and a third world record as part of Jamaica's 4x100 metres relay team on Friday.
Bolt and his teammates stormed to victory in 37.10 seconds, taking an
astonishing 0.30 seconds off the previous mark of 37.40 a US relay ran at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Bolt won the 100m in 9.69 seconds and the 200m in 19.30 seconds and the relay
win was Jamaica's first in the event at the Olympics.
"I can't explain a week like this," said Bolt. "I asked these
guys to give it to me and they came through."
But Jamaica was denied a full six golds out of six sprint races over 100m, 200m
and 4x100m for women and men when the women's relay dropped the baton, paving
the way for Russia to win gold.
Ethiopian star Tirunish Dibaba completed the first women's distance running
double in a slow-paced 5,000m race a week after she dominated the 10,000m to
win gold with the second best time in event history.
Former doping offender Maurren Maggi became the first ever Brazilian women's
athletics gold medallist in the long jump, Bryan Clay of the US won the
decathlon, Italy's Alex Schwarzer got gold in the men's 50km walk and Steve
Hooker gave Australia a first pole vault gold with 5.96m.
Bolt ran the third leg as he and teammates Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and
Asafa Powell smashed the US world record from 16 years ago in the latest show
of Jamaican sprint domination.
Trinidad and Tobago took silver in 38.06 seconds and Japan got bronze in 38.15 seconds.
"Jamaica is the sprint capital of the world," boasted the former 100m
world record holder Powell who finihsed fifth in the 100m.
The US had dropped the baton in the heats of the men's and women's races but
the Jamaican women shared the same fate when the second handover between 100m
silver medallists Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart went wrong.
That opened the door for Russia to win gold in 42.31 seconds from Evgeniya
Polyakova, Alexandra Fedoriva, Yulia Gushchina and Yuliya Chermoshanskaya. Belgium got silver in 42.54 and Nigeria took bronze in 43.04.
Dibaba cemented her status as the greatest women's distance runner after
already winning the long distance double at the 2005 worlds. She also has a
5,000m world title from 2003 and 10,000m crowd from 2007.
On Friday, she used her famous last-lap kick and crossed the line in 15
minutes 41.40 seconds.
"It is a big achievement for me. When I came from my country I didn't
think I'd win both," said Dibaba modestly.
As in the 10,000m, Ethiopia-born Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey took silver in
15:42.74, while the 2004 champion Meseret Defar of Ethiopia had to settle for
bronze this time around in 15:42.12 minutes.
The women's long jump medal order was decided in the first of six rounds, with
Maggi, who was banned 2003-2005 for drug abuse, soaring 7.04m for her biggest
career success following two Pan American titles.
The 2004 gold medallist Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia got silver after a desperate
final leap of 7.03m which fell just one centimetre short of what what have been
gold on countback.
Blessing Okagbare took bronze for Nigeria in 6.91m the day after being promoted
into the final after Ukraine's Lyudmila Blonska was kicked out of the Games and
stripped of her heptathlon silver by the International Olympic Committee for
steroid doping.
Hooker provided plenty of drama en route to the pole vault gold he earned a few
years after undergoing hypnosis sessions to ease his fear of heights.
The Aussie cleared 5.80m, 5.85m and 5.90m on his third attempt to get gold and
then also took three jumps to clear an Olympic record 5.96m.
Evgeny Lukyanenko of Russia took silver with 5.85m and the bronze went to Denys
Yurchenko, who could not continue due to injury after jumping 5.70m.
"I love what I do and this is the icing on the cake. I feel I deserve it
and I will enjoy it," said Hooker.
Clay took the decathlon crown with 8,791 points four years after having to
settle for silver in Athens behind Czech Roman Sebrle with the highest
non-winning amount of points with 8,820.
Belarussian Andrei Krauchanka got silver with 8,551 points and the bronze went
to Cuban Leonel Suarez with 8,527m.
Schwarzer gave Italy its first 50 kilometres walk gold in 44 years since Abdon Pamich's success 1964 in Tokyo. The 23-year-old broke a three-man leader group
after the 40km mark to claim his first big title after world championship
bronze in 2005 and 2007 in 3 hours 37 minutes 9 seconds.
Jared Tallent of Australia added the silver to his 20km bronze in a personal
best 3:39:27. Russia's Denis Nizhegorodov got bronze to go with 2004 Olympic
silver in 3:40:14 hours on a hot morning.
The US 4x400m relay teams did not drop the baton like the 4x100m women's and
men's teams did the previous day, ensuring that both teams moving into
Saturday's finals.
Saturday's finals are the men's 800m, 5,000m, 4x400m, javelin, and the women's
1,500m, 4x400m and high jump. The Olympic events are wrapped up with the men's
marathon on Sunday, dpa reported.
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