ReportYesterday was the Day 9 of athletics action or the last day where the events will be last held at the Birds Nest Stadium before moving to today’s Marathon event to be held outdoor. Similar to Day 8, there was seven medals up for grabs and all the scheduled events are finals. No more qualifying round nor heats. The events in order of the day were Women High Jump Final, Men Javelin Final, Men 800m Final, Women 1500m Final, Men 5000m Final, Women 4x400m Relay Final and Men 4x400m Relay Final Croatian women high jumper Blanka Vlasic came into the games with the longest winning streak of any athlete in her event and is a sure winner for the women’s high jump. But someone forgot that its the Olympics, where anything can happen. It was an on-form Belgian Tia Hellebaut who spoiled the day for the Croat as she snatched a surprise gold. She even surprised herself, for an athlete who was struggling to clear beyond 2 meters consistently, she broke her national record by 5 centimeters, to a new height of 2.05m on the day that mattered, and it gotten her the gold. The lanky Croat however didn’t make it easy for Hellebaut, she also jumped tit-for-tat at each of Hellebaut clearance and while Blanka also jumped at 2.05m for the final round of jumps, the countback awarded the Belgian the gold as she needed just one jump while Blanka needed two. Bronze went to Russia’s Anna Chicherova who equaled her personal best of 2.03m. For your info, we at Singapore Athletics managed to interview Tia Hellebaut back in 2005 The Men Javelin Final saw a field of Europeans dominating this event. Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen has gotten his second Olympic gold in style in a new Olympic mark. Thorkildsen 90.57m effort was 0.4m better than the Sydney 2000 record, which was won by Czech Jan Zelezny then. Thorkildsen never looked trouble and was leading from the first round throws. Silver went to Latvian Aimars Kovals who launched a personal best of 86.64m down the field. His effort was enough to hold off a challenge from Finnish Tero Pitkamaki who had to settle for bronze with his 85.83m effort Men 800m Final saw Kenyan dominance in the event. Wilfred Bungei of Kenya ran a smart tactical race, he went into the lead and slowed the pace down. Lapped at 53.35s for the first round, he then notched up the gear through the 600m marker. Known for having a finishing kick, Bungei sprinted as he reached the bend. He successfully led from the start till the finish clocking in a time of 1:44.65. Sudan’s Ismail Ahmed (1:44.70) and another Kenyan Alfred Kirwa (1:44.80) was close in challenging Bungei, but the 28 year old Kenyan had enough reserve in him to ‘outkick’ the others. The Women 1500m Final was won by Kenya’s Nancy Langat and the silver and bronze went to a delighted Ukraine duo. They were all delighted as World Champion Maryam Yusuf Jamal was outstaged by these three in the last phase of the race. Maryam of Bahrain looked good from the front but faltered in the last part of the race as she succumbed to a much better athlete with a faster finishing kick. Nancy Langat ran a personal best of 4:00.23, followed by the Ukraine duo of Iryna Lishchynska (4:01.60) and Nataliya Tobias (4:01.80) Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele having won his men’s 10,000m gold few days ago, he won gold yet again in the men’s 5000m final. If his prior race did have any toll on his fitness, it didn’t showed as he won his 5000m event in a new Olympic record of 12:57.82. On the final lap, he started his move early and left his closest competitor Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge (13:02.80) and Edwin Cheruiyot Soi (13:06.20) in the dust by running a 53.87s for the last 400m. He even pointed a number one sign and gave a smile to the crowd as he ran the final bend. The Women 4x400m Relay Final saw the tussle favorite between the Russian and American girls. The Americans girls have to thank the two sublime runs by Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards for their gold win. They were split at 48.55 and 48.93 seconds respectively. It made up for a slow 51s flat run by their first runner Mary Wineberg. The Russian girls however had an even more balanced team, all of the average between 49-50 seconds per lap. What the Russian really need is at least one star 400m runner like the Americans had. Sanya Richards literally snatched the gold from the Russian girls who was leading in the last lap. Richards inched her way to victory in the last 50m of the race and won for the team in a time of 3:18.54, a season’s best while the Russian had to settle for silver in a time of 3:18.80, also a season best. The Jamaican relay girls wasn’t in contention this time round, as the team depth wasn’t as good as the Russian and Americans. They were close but still trailed some distant behind. They finished third in a time of 3:20.40. The Brits with Olympic 400m women champion Christine Ohuruogu was letdown by her teammate disappointing slow runs and finished fifth (3:22.68). Olympic track last event of the day was the Men 4x400m Relay Final. The American was just too strong and too fast. The American team comprised of LaShawn Merritt (400m gold), Angelo Taylor (400m Hurdle Gold), David Neville (400m bronze) and Jeremy Wariner (400m silver) didn’t looked trouble from the start. It wasn’t surprising that they finished first in a new Olympic time of 2:55.39. Most of the race action were behind the Americans. Bahamas successfully fend off a surprising Russian team for silver. Bahamas finished second in a time of 2:58.00 while the Russian clocked a new national record of 2:58.10 to grab bronze Today’s Schedule – Sunday:(24/8) [1 medal]
Yesterday’s Results – Saturday:(23/8) [7 medals] 19:00 Women High Jump Final
19:10 Men Javelin Final
19:30 Men 800m Final
19:50 Women 1500m Final
20:10 Men 5000m Final
20:40 Women 4x400m Relay Final
21:05 Men 4x400m Relay Final
|
|
|
Loading ...
