Shelly-Ann Fraser led a Jamaican sweep in the 100m yesterday to give her country its first Olympic gold in the women’s sprint a day after Usain Bolt did the same for the men.
The 21-year-old stormed down lane four to claim her first major international title in 10.78 seconds, 0.2 seconds ahead of Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart, who shared silver after a photo finish.
Simpson and Stewart were both awarded exactly the same time of 10.98, with former world champion Lauryn Williams the first of a trio of Americans in fourth.
Defending champion Yuliya Nestsiarenka of Belarus failed to reach the final after finishing fifth in her semi-final earlier yesterday evening.
Gulnara Galkina-Samitova set the second world record in as many days at the Olympic track, running the first sub-nine minute steeplechase in history to take the gold medal.
The Russian steadily stretched the field with her long, elegant stride until she was all alone and only had the clock to beat.
She did so, too, improving her own world record to 8 minutes, 58.81 seconds amid the cheers of the 91,000 fans at the Bird’s Nest.
While Usain Bolt’s 100m record came in the most fabled event, Galkina-Samitova got hers in the Olympic debut of the 3,000m steeplechase.
Eunice Jepkorir of Kenya took silver, almost nine seconds back, edging another Russian, Ekaterina Volkova, in a sprint finish.
Earlier, after a 7am start, a 38-year-old mother Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania won the first gold of the day. She beat reigning world champion and pre-race favorite Catherine Ndereba of Kenya to win a marathon that started at Tiananmen Square and never faced the haze of the city’s pollution.
The day would be capped at the buzzing Bird’s Nest, where two of the greatest African long-distance runners were to face off in the 10,000m — veteran Haile Gebrselassie against Ethiopian compatriot Kenenisa Bekele.
Primoz Kozmus won Slovenia’s first athletics gold medal in Olympic history, taking the hammer throw with his season’s best throw of 82.02m. He edged two Belarussians.
Vadim Devyatovskiy, who was fourth at the 2004 Athens Olympics, took silver this time with 81.61m. Three-time world champion Ivan Tsikhan won bronze with 81.51m.
Casting an early pall, reigning women’s 400m hurdles champion Fani Halkia of Greece tested positive for a banned drug and will not defend her title.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed yesterday that Halkia tested positive for a steroid at a Greek athletics team training camp in Japan before traveling to Beijing.
She was the second track athlete to test positive during the IOC’s Beijing anti-doping program, after the IAAF had made special efforts to catch as many as possible before competition starts. On Saturday, the Bulgarians announced that middle-distance runner Daniela Yordanova had withdrawn after testing positive for testosterone.
There was also bad news from Liu Xiang, China’s biggest track star. The defending champion in the 110m hurdles was still suffering pain from an inflamed hamstring.
Ahead of today’s opening heats, Liu has been training in seclusion for weeks amid questions about his fitness. Liu has competed rarely and in June saw his world record fall to Dayron Robles of Cuba.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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