BEIJING: Jamaicans proved they are the world’s fastest humans yesterday when Shelly-Ann Fraser led a sweep in the women’s Olympic 100-meter race on the heels of Usain Bolt’s record-setting victory.
“This is a crazy ‘Bolt’ effect,” Fraser said after she matched her teammate with a .20 second margin of victory and almost as exuberant a celebration.
Ethiopia completed a similar sweep in the 10,000, with Kenenisa Bekele adding the men’s title on top of Tirunesh Dibaba’s win to show they are the world’s greatest long-distance runners.
Bekele won his second straight Olympic title in a 1-2 Ethiopian triumph ahead of eternal runner-up Sileshi Sihine.
All-time great Haile Gebrselassie finished only sixth in his last 10,000, well behind bronze medalist Micah Kogo of Kenya. “I could not go more faster,” Gebrselassie said after celebrating in the Bird’s Nest stadium with his Ethiopian teammates. “I enjoyed it.”
Now Bekele will go for a long distance double in the 5,000.
Fraser led a unique Jamaican triple, already celebrating with her fist pumping the air as she crossed the line with two teammates in canary yellow in her slipstream.
Fraser finished in a season-leading 10.78 seconds, with Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart sharing silver in 10.98.
“It’s wonderful. Top 3 for Jamaica - history,” Simpson said. “This says a lot for our country.”
The Americans filed a protest, claiming there was a false start by Torri Edwards, but it was quickly rejected.
In the battle of sprinting powers it was Jamaica 2, USA 0 after the 100s, and 4-1 overall in the medal count. It was stunning domination.
Lauryn Williams was the first American in fourth place in 11.03, with Muna Lee a disappointing fifth.
As extensive a tradition of stellar sprinting as Jamaica has, the Caribbean island of about 2.8 million people never had won an Olympic gold in the 100 until this weekend.
Minutes earlier, Gulnara Galkina-Samitova set the second world record in as many days at the Olympic track, running the first sub-nine minute women’s 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 8:58.81. While Bolt’s 100 record came in the most fabled event, Galkina-Samitova got hers in the Olympic debut of the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Eunice Jepkorir of Kenya took silver, almost nine seconds back, edging another Russian, Ekaterina Volkova.
Like Bekele, triple jumper Francoise Mbango Etone of Cameroon defended her title. She won with the second-longest jump in history - 15.39 meters - just 11 centimeters off the world record.
Mbango came back this season after spending most of 2006 and 2007 off the circuit because of injuries, lack of motivation and motherhood. Two-time world champion Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia, the bronze medalist in Athens, was second at 15.32 and Hrysopiyi Devetzi of Greece, who got silver at home in 2004, collected bronze at 15.23.
In the 1,500, world champion Bernard Lagat was eliminated in the semifinals, finishing sixth in his race with only five getting a guaranteed spot. On best time, he missed out by .02 seconds. Lagat was chasing a 1,500-5,000 double but now only has his least favorite event left to make amends. Casting an early pall, however, reigning women’s 400-meter hurdles champion Fani Halkia of Greece tested positive for a banned drug and will not defend her title. The International Olympic Committee confirmed yesterday that Halkia tested positive for a steroid at a Greek athletics team training camp in Japan before coming to Beijing.
She was the second track athlete to test positive during the IOC’s Beijing anti-doping program, after 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 110 hurdles is 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 this year and in June saw his world record fall to Dayron Robles of Cuba.
Early yesterday, a 38-year-old mother Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania won the marathon, beating reigning world champion and pre-race favorite Catherine Ndereba of Kenya.
After months of trepidation that pollution would be a major factor during the marathon, yesterday’s weather proved it was not.
“The weather helped me a lot,” said Tomescu-Dita, the 2005 world championship bronze medalist. “I’m very happy because it’s not very, very hot,” she said of the 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees F) conditions. Home favorite Zhou Chunxiu took bronze, producing the first medal for China in the track program. For world record-holder Paula Radcliffe, there was only disappointment. She finished 23rd, nearly six minutes behind the winner and even had to resort to walking near the end of the race. At a railing, she stretched to soothe pain in her foot before resuming her race.
She kept running only because, “it’s horrible when you have to drop out.”
