LONDON: Usain Bolt begins the defense of his 100 meters title at London 2012 today and Michael Phelps will have one last chance to add to the biggest Olympic medal haul of all time.
Bolt, the charismatic Jamaican who lit up the 2008 Beijing Games with three golds and his trademark lightning bolt celebration, will run in the heats of the shorter sprint, the most anticipated event of the Games.
Also limbering up for Sunday’s final will be the three other fastest men in history, all intent on toppling him: fellow-Jamaicans Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell, and Tyson Gay of the United States.
The last night of swimming action will see Phelps join his American team mates in the 4x100 meters medley final and looking for his 22nd Olympic medal.
Phelps, who this week smashed the previous record of 18 that Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina had held for nearly half a century, notched up number 21 on Friday with gold in the 100 meters butterfly.
To see the medals tally, please click on this link: http://www.arabnews.com/?q=sports/olympics-medals-tally-0
“This is my last individual event. It was awesome,” Phelps said. “This swim was pretty important to me. I wanted to win.” Katie Ledecky, 15, took the women’s 800m freestyle title and another teenage US swimmer, 17-year-old Missy Franklin, grabbed her third gold medal of the Games in the 200m backstroke, breaking the world record in the process.
She too will be looking for a medley relay gold to set the seal on her first Olympics.
Their feats propelled the United States to the top of the overall medals table for the first time, leading China by 21 golds to 20, with South Korea third on nine.
On Friday’s first day of athletics action in the 80,000-capacity Olympic Stadium, it was Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba who grabbed gold in the women’s 10,000 meters by kicking fiercely at the bell to shake off two Kenyan rivals.
Dibaba, the defending champion, strode out to beat Sally Kipyego by about 30 meters, with world champion Vivian Cheruiyot taking the bronze.
Poland’s Tomasz Majewski became the first man for 56 years to win back-to-back Olympic shot put titles by hurling 21.89 meters to beat world champion David Storl of Germany by three centimeters.
With flashbulbs popping, music blaring and 80,000 fans creating a deafening roar, British favorite Jessica Ennis captured the lead in a see-saw heptathlon contest.
Ennis, Britain’s Olympic poster girl, set a world best time for a heptathlete in the 100 meters hurdles and followed with a solid high jump, but Lithuania’s Austra Skujyte bettered her by more than three meters in the shot put to take the lead.
Urged on by the crowd, Ennis overhauled her in the last heptathlon event of the day, the 200m, with a time of 22.83 seconds compared with her rival’s 25.43.
She takes a lead of 184 points into the second day of the event, which concludes with the long jump, javelin and 800m.
World champion Carmelita Jeter of the United States ran the fastest time in the women’s 100 meter heats ahead of Saturday’s semis and final, sprinting home in 10.83 seconds.
Defending champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica looked in no mood to try to match Jeter but qualified comfortably, as did her compatriot Veronica Campbell-Brown and Allyson Felix of the United States.
Federer epic
At Wimbledon, Roger Federer of Switzerland remained on course to repeat his heroics in the grasscourt grand slam in July, beating Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in a marathon 19-17 third and final set to earn a place in the final.
Federer will now face local hope Andy Murray, who rode a wave of British euphoria to beat Serbia’s world number two Novak Djokovic 7-5 7-5 and set up a repeat of last month’s Wimbledon final against the Swiss maestro.
New Zealand struck gold twice on the water, with Mahe Drysdale taking the men’s single sculls and men’s pair Eric Murray and Hamish Bond cruising to victory in comprehensive fashion.
Hosts Britain celebrated wins for Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins in double sculls rowing — a dream come true for Grainger after three previous silvers — and for its men’s team pursuit cyclists and Victoria Pendleton in the women’s keirin.
Britain’s men took cycling track team sprint gold on Thursday, but the taste of victory was soured when German-born rider Philip Hindes admitted to falling over on his bike on purpose in the heats to avoid being disqualified.
“I did it on purpose to get a restart... it was all planned really,” he told reporters, prompting shock among British media and leading to calls for a change in the rules.
It also raised uncomfortable questions about gamesmanship at the Olympics, after eight badminton players were thrown out for deliberately losing matches to manipulate the draw.
British cycling officials later said Hindes’ comments were lost in translation and the International Olympic Committee has no plans to investigate the incident “at present.”
Britain are in fourth place in the medals table with eight golds — the same number as France, which celebrated wins for Teddy Riner in judo and Florent Manaudou in the 50 meter freestyle sprint.
A light lunch made the difference between gold and silver for Polish weightlifter Adrian Edward Zielinski.
Tied with Apti Aukhadov from Russia after they lifted the same total weight, he won on lighter bodyweight.
“I ate a whole breakfast: boiled eggs and a little bit of porridge and for lunch I just had a small piece of chicken,” said Polish gold medallist who weighed in just 130 grams lighter than his opponent.
