Sport

Jamaicans dominate the women’s 100m dash

— Photo: AP

IN A BREEZE: Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser (second from right) clinched the gold in the women’s 100m final.

BEIJING: Shelly-Ann Fraser emerge the fastest woman at the Olympics with a stunning finish in the 100m with a personal best 10.78 seconds at the Bird’s Nest here on Sunday. The 21-year-old Jamaican accelerated in the last 30 metres to leave the rest of the field behind.

It was a dream 1-2-3 for Jamaica as Sherone Simpson got her head past the finish line ahead of Kerron Stewart —who had led the race initially — on the photo-finish with an identical 10.98.

“Oh, my God, that is too much! When I crossed the line and saw Sherone and Kerron there, that was the moment. I would’t trade it for anything else,” said Fraser.

“Once I got the start right, I got to swinging my arms and I thought I could do any time. About 50 metres out, I glimpsed to the sides and I smiled, then I powered through the line,” she said.

“Last night was amazing. It was crazy. I wanted to come out and do the same thing. I was inspired by Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell,” said Fraser.

“It was wonderful. I was so grateful to get a silver,” said Simpson.

Lauryn Williams (11.03) and Muna Lee (11.07) of the US had to be content with the fourth and fifth positions, while Briton Jeanette Kwakye clocked her career-best 11.14 for the sixth place. Former world champion, Torri Edwards of the US, finished last with a 11.20, a mere 0.01 seconds behind Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas.

Gulnara Galkina-Samitova of Russia made the women’s 3000m steeplechase memorable by breaking her own world record — she clocked 8 minutes 58.81 seconds — to outclass the field. The 30-year-old’s earlier world record of 9:01.59 was set in Greece in 2004.

Two other favourites for the medal kept their promise. Eunice Jepkorir of Kenya came second, nearly nine seconds behind the champion, as she pipped Ekaterina Volkova of Russia by 0.23 seconds. World championship silver medalist Tatiana Petrova of Russia was placed a distant fourth at 9:12.33.

Francois Mbango Etone of Cameroon set an Olympic record 15.39 metres in triple jump to defend her title in Athens. She beat Russian Tatyana Lebedeva by seven centimetres. Incidentally, it was an improvement for Lebedeva from the bronze in the last Games, as she jumped her season’s best 15.32 metres on the third attempt in the final.

Primoz Kozmus won Slovenia’s first Olympic gold medal in athletics with distance of 82.02 metres in the men’s hammer throw final. The 28-year-old achieved the distance on his second attempt, and had the best throw in the first four rounds before the three-time world champion Ivan Tsikhan of Belarus took over and threw 81.51 to eventually bag the bronze.

The world championship silver medallist, Kozmus surpassed the 80-metre mark with all the six throws, starting with an 80.75.

“You can’t go out and say you will win a medal. You must make it happen,” said Kozmus, who added that he was able to overcome his problems with technique in the final.

Vadim Devyatovskiy of Belarus had to settle for the silver with 81.61 on his second throw, as he miscued one of his flings into the cage. It was, however, an improvement for Devyatovskiy from his fourth place finish at Athens.

The defending champion Koji Murofushi of Japan finished fifth at 80.71.

In the men’s 1500m, world champion Bernard Lagat of the US, suffered a shock ouster, as he finished sixth in the second semifinal with a 3:37.79. The two fastest qualifiers came in the first race, and the former Kenya runner missed the bus by 0.02 seconds. He had won the silver in Athens and bronze in Sydney. “I tried to follow the pace, follow the strategies I made. I feel bad that it didn’t go well. There was a lot of boxing and a lot of pushing. I gave it my all,” said Lagat.

Kenyan Kipruto Kiprop Asbel topped the qualifiers with a 3:37.04, followed closely by the former world champion Rashid Ramzi at 3:37.11.

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