 Men Rumble ... Women Fumble
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-23 10:29
In yet another mind-boggling display of speed, Usain Bolt set another world record and won another Olympic gold medal. Only this time, he shared the glory with his Jamaican teammates. Bolt and Asafa Powell blew away the field over the last two legs of the 4x100m relay last night, leading Jamaica around the track in 37.10 sec to break the US's 16-year-old world record by 0.3 of a second. The bonus is that he got to bring Powell along for the ride. Powell, who held the world record in the 100m dash for about three years before Bolt broke it in May, he is known for his history of poor performances in big meets. Last night, he got to do the honors, running the anchor leg, taking a clean handoff from Bolt and crossing the line almost a full second ahead of Trinidad and Tobago's Richard Thompson to secure his first Olympic medal. The official margin of victory, 0.96, was the biggest in the Olympics since 1936. Japan finished third. An hour earlier, the Jamaican women fell one race short of only the second 6-for-6 sweep by any country in Olympic sprint history -- and only because they beat themselves. Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart, who had shared silver in the 100m, botched the handoff between the second and third legs and Jamaica didn't finish the race won by Russia. Yevgeniya Polyakova, Aleksandra Fedoriva, Yulia Guschina and Yuliya Chermoshanskaya crossed the line in 42.31, the slowest winning time for 32 years. Britain also fumbled a baton change and didn't finish, which allowed Belgium to take silver. Nigeria got bronze. The United States, meanwhile, went 0-for-6 in sprints for the first time ever. Both its men's and women's relay teams failed to qualify for the finals after dropping the baton in qualifying. Agencies 
 (China Daily 08/23/2008 page4) |
