Beijing 2008 - Day Two Summary - 16 Aug

 

Beijing, China - Usain Bolt's 9.69 World record* left other gold medal performances in the shade after the end of the second day of Athletics at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008.

It was still Saturday morning in Jamaica, and we imagine this means there was plenty of day and evening left to celebrate the 9.69 World record run by Usain Bolt in Saturday night's (beijing time) 100m final, which concluded the second day of Olympic athletics at Beijing's National Stadium.

The race was pitched as a three-way battle between Bolt, former World record holder Asafa Powell, and World champion Tyson Gay, but Gay was unable to make it out of the semifinal round, blaming a lack of race conditioning since his injury at the U.S. Trials in July. And Powell, too, was a non-factor in the end, fading to fifth (9.95) as Bolt unfolded his absurdly long stride and walked away from the field in the second part of the race.

Bolt looked around at 70m and visibly shut off his top gear, gesturing and celebrating even before he crossed the line. After setting his first World record of 9.72 in late May, Bolt told reporters that records were one thing, but Olympic medals meant more.

"The World record means nothing without gold medals," he said then. "If you are the Olympic champion, they have to wait four years to try to beat you."

The other medals go to Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago (9.89) and Walter Dix of the USA (9.91) when they're awarded at the beginning of the evening session on Sunday (17).

Vili dominates

Valerie Vili of New Zealand has dominated the women's Shot Put since winning the event at last summer's World Championships in Osaka, and she reminded her competitors of that fact as quickly as possible in this evening's final. Vili's very first pitch was a 20.56m PB, and given her PB was already the Oceania AR, the mark was established for the others to toss at for the duration of the evening.

Vili eventually delivered five consecutive marks over 20m, including three good enough to win (the silver went to the only other putter over 20m, Natallia Mikhnevich of Belarus at 20.28m), but didn't improve on that awesome opener. Mikhnevich produced her silver-winning release in the second round, and the remaining medal movement came when her teammate Nadzeya Ostapchuk moved into third with a 19.86m toss in the fifth round. Vili declined to make a sixth attempt with the gold medal locked up.

Fountain's long jump upset is Dobrynska's gain

It was a long day for the Heptathlon leader-after-four-events Hyleas Fountain. Fountain entered the morning session ahead, but had a disappointing long jump (6.38, only the 7th-best in the field), and that was when Ukraine's Nataliia Dobrynska struck. Dobrynska's 6.63m leap bounded her into the lead, and she expanded it with a solid 48.60m Javelin Throw where Fountain could only manage 41.93m.

Arriving at the 800m, then, Dobrynska had a 145-point lead over Fountain, and Lyudmila Blonska, the silver medallist from Osaka, was a bare six points behind Fountain in third. The final heat of the 800m produced PBs for seven of the eight starters--the exception being Dobrynska, finishing eighth but, with 855 points, clinching her gold medal. Blonska, in 2:09.44, picked up 973 and closed 118 points of Dobrynska's lead; Fountain with 2:15.45 (886) only made up 31, and slid to third. The trio were awarded their medals by one of the most successful Ukranians in athletics history, World Pole Vault record holder Sergey Bubka, IAAF Senior Vice President.

Borchin couldn't believe its his gold

Even the Saturday morning session had a final, as the men's 20km Race Walk stepped off at 9:00. For 15km a large pack of walkers revolved around a narrow course in the midst of the Olympic Green, led largely by Italy's Ivano Brugnetti and Spain's Francisco Javier Fernandez. At 15km, however, World champion Jefferson Perez of Ecuador moved strongly to open up the race, and his move was covered only by Russia's Valeriy Borchin and Australia's Jared Tallent. Tallent, pursued doggedly by Brugnetti, couldn't handle the pace as Borchin took the lead with Perez on his shoulder, but those two leaders slugged it out until the closing kilometres.

It would be Borchin who finally made the conclusive break and entered the Bird's Nest tunnel first. Crossing the finish line in 1:19:01, Borchin appeared unsure that he had really finished, maintaining stride around the corner just in case, before the truth sunk in. Perez was just 14 seconds behind, then Tallent arrived in 1:19:42.

Tallent was pursued closely by Wang Hao of China, who celebrated his 19th birthday with a 1:19:47 PB; Brugnetti in 5th and Tallent's teammate Luke Adams were also under 1:20 and therefore within a minute of Borchin.

Qualifying

Saturday morning's qualifying rounds included the men's 3000m Steeplechase, where a full squad of Kenyans safely advanced to the final, and the women's Pole Vault, where eleven women cleared 4.50m before Yelena Isinbayeva wrapped everything up with a single successful jump at the automatic qualifying height, 4.60m. Isinbayeva had the highest clearance, but only tied for fewest jumps; Jen Stuczynski cleared 4.50m with a single attempt as well. The first round of the women's 400m was also run as well with no significant casualties.

The afternoon's qualifying included the women's 100m, where sixteen women advanced to the semi-final round (Sunday) but not France's Christine Arron.

The extraordinarily tough three-heat semifinal of the women's 800m saw a veritable slaughter of world-class two-lap women but qualified Maria Mutola for her fifth Olympic final as well as world season leader Pamela Jelimo and World champion Janeth Jepkosgei. Three Americans were among the eight advancing to the men's 400m Hurdles final, but for the first time in Olympic history the men's Long Jump final will not include a single competitor from the USA.

Parker Morse for the IAAF

**subject to usual ratification procedures