LONDON: Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba attempts a track double in the 5,000 meters to add to the 10,000 Olympic crown she retained in thrilling fashion a week ago in London, but two doping cases overshadowed another action-packed day at the Games yesterday.
BMX riders provided high-speed thrills and spills over bumps and around banked corners and Britain suffered sailing defeats on the 14th day of competition, when fresh doping scandals involving a French and Kenyan athlete emerged.
France’s 5,000 meters runner Hassan Hirt failed a test for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) prior to competing in London, where he finished 11th in his first-round heat on Wednesday and failed to qualify.
Kenyan athletics officials also confirmed yesterday that distance runner Mathew Kisorio tested positive for a banned substance in June, but rejected his claim that doping was widespread in the country.
Earlier in the week Victor Conte, convicted owner of a now-defunct laboratory at the center of a global steroid scandal, said it was easy to cheat at the Olympics by using drugs.
The International Olympic Committee dismissed his comments as being “like a poacher criticizing a gamekeeper.”
Jubilant Jamaicans at home and in London were nursing hangovers yesterday following the fireworks of Thursday, when Usain Bolt became the first man to defend both the 100 and 200 sprints and sealed his place in Olympic lore.
The Jamaican 1-2-3 in the 200, the highlight of the Thursday’s athletics, made it particularly sweet for the Caribbean island which has just celebrated the 50th anniversary of independence from Britain.
“I made a goal to become a legend,” Bolt said after his 19.32-second dash. Reflecting on what he might do next, the world’s fastest human added: “I have made my goal, now I have to sit down and make another one.”
Jamaica’s women try to keep their country’s Olympic sprint magic flowing in Friday’s 4x100 relay.
Women’s double 100 champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and third-placed Veronica Campbell-Brown will lock horns with a US quartet featuring 100 silver medalist Carmelita Jeter and 200 winner Allyson Felix.
The Jamaicans will be missing from the men’s 4x400 after failing to qualify but the United States, seeking an eighth successive win in the event, are not as strong as usual and face a real battle to keep their streak alive.
They would have no chance at all but for Manteo Mitchell, who astonishingly secured a place in the final for his team by running through the pain of a broken fibula bone in his leg.
Bolt’s triumph capped a remarkable Thursday when Kenya’s David Rudisha broke his own 800 world record, Britain’s Nicola Adams became the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title and the United States held off a Japanese fightback to win their third successive women’s soccer gold.
If she can win, Dibaba will be emulating the 5,000/10,000 double of Finnish man Lasse Viren in 1972/76. Ashton Eaton took the unofficial title of the world’s greatest athlete late on Thursday when he won the decathlon, helping the United States to climb atop the overall medals table with 39 golds and overtake China which is on 37.
The two have been neck-and-neck throughout London 2012 in the race for Olympic bragging rights, but whoever wins, home nation Britain will certainly be celebrating its best medals haul since 1908 when London first hosted the Games.
Its 25 golds put it behind China in third place and easily surpasses the previous best in Beijing of 19.
The golden glow has helped fuel the popularity of the Games among a public that has packed many venues and lifted athletes with deafening cheers.
Travel delays have not been as severe as some predicted despite a surge in travelers. Transport for London said yesterday that in the first 12 days of the Games, 47 million journeys were made on the underground, up 30 percent on a year ago.
There were disappointments for home fans yesterday though, including on the water where Australia won gold ahead of Britain in the men’s two-hander 470 sailing class. New Zealand repeated the trick in the women’s event.
Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli won the men’s swimming marathon though the Serpentine lake in London’s Hyde Park to become the first swimmer to get medals in the pool and open water.
