Monday 6 August 2012

London 2012 Olympics: Bolt blasts his way into history


London 2012 Olympics on The Intrepid Reporter
Unofficial sport-by-sport guide - Medal calendar - Full results - The Big 4 - Team sports

USAIN BOLT defended his men's 100m title successfully after running the second fastest time ever and breaking the Olympic record.

Bolt finished in 9.63 seconds, ahead of his training partner Yohan Blake with American Justin Gatlin in third after he edged out his compatriot Tyson Gay by just one-hundredth of a second.

This was Bolt pretty much at his best as he became the first man to win back-to-back 100m Olympic golds since Carl Lewis won in 1984 and 1988.

Yes, the world record may not have fallen but this was still an absolutely phenomenal performance by an athlete who has had his doubters over the past year or so.

Of course, the detractors' claims were not groundless with ammunition for them provided by his false start failure in last year's World Championships in Daegu, and his defeat to Blake at the Jamaican Olympic trials.

However, it soon became clear that at the actual Olympic Games, Bolt meant business. In his heat and his semi final, Bolt strolled over the line in 10.08 seconds and 9.87 seconds respectively.

Naturally, the final - scheduled at 9.50pm - was always going to be tougher, and Bolt got out of his blocks slowly, perhaps fearing another instant elimination for a false start.

Never too far behind, though, it was clear that - in the second half of the race - this was a one-man show. Bolt was in town, London town, and he was there to break another record.

Now, his next task comes just after midday on Tuesday when he runs in the fourth heat of the 200m qualifiers.

Can Bolt really complete successive 100m and 200m doubles? Surely, his prodigy Blake will have something more to say about that in the final on Thursday.

Indeed, the presence of 22-year-old Blake is unnerving to say the least. It suggests that, even when Bolt - three years his senior - has retired, Jamaica will still have a stranglehold over these events for years to come.

That is not Jamaica's problem, of course - the onus must fall on the other nations to catch up.

Great Britain has had three previous 100m Olympic champions with Harold Abrahams in Paris 1924, Allan Wells in Moscow 1980, and Linford Christie in Barcelona 1992.

Last night, 18-year-old Adam Gemili showed some elite potential, running 10.06 seconds in his semi final, and only just failing to progress.

Gemili only took up the sport in January, having been playing football in League Two for Dagenham & Redbridge until then, and time is certainly on his side.

Back to the present day, and Christine Ohuruogu won Britain's fourth athletics medal of London 2012 with silver in the 400m.

Of course, that meant Ohuruogu had to cede her Olympic title in her own backyard but this was still a great result after a streak of worrying form.

Last night was Ohuruogu's fastest time in three years as, once again, she hit her peak at exactly the right moment.

Incredibly, that silver took Great Britain's overall medal haul up to 37 - just 10 shy of the Beijing total, and 11 short of the Team GB target - after another golden day.

Early in the afternoon, Ben Ainslie became the most decorated Olympic sailor ever, claiming his fourth gold medal after eventually winning the week-long Battle of Weymouth Bay against the 'Great Dane' Jonas Hogh-Christensen.

Olympic champion Ainslie had been in real trouble earlier in the week as Hogh-Christensen set a blistering pace by finishing ahead of his British rival in each of the first six races.

In race seven, though, there came a turning point as Hogh-Christensen capsized and Ainslie capitalised by winning for the first time.

Still, Ainslie entered the medal race a little behind and with another threat coming from Dutchman Pieter-Jan Postma.

And so, while it looked like Ainslie had the Hogh-Christensen situation under control, there remained a real threat that Postma could undercut both of them to take gold.

A similar thing had already happened when duo Iain Percy and Andrew 'Bart' Simpson were unable to defend their Olympic title in the Star class.

Swedish pair Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen won gold after Percy and Simpson ended up tangling with Brazilian bronze medalists Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada down the field in the final race.

However, Great Britain was not going to be denied twice in the same afternoon.

Postma - perhaps feeling the pressure - made a tactical error at the final turn, and dropped to fifth. It meant Ainslee could finally relax after what had surely been the toughest race of his life.

Later in the afternoon, Andy Murray won gold in the men's singles, exacting revenge on Roger Federer for his defeat in the Wimbledon final only four weeks earlier.

Murray was in control from the very start, winning the first set 6-2. In the second set, a vital moment came as he saved six break points in his second service game to move 3-0 up, eventually winning that 6-1.

Federer had never been beaten by Murray over five sets - but another break in fifth game of the third set allowed Murray to serve out for a victory which left the staticians wiping dust off the record books.

After all, this was the first Olympic medal for a British man in tennis singles since Charles Dixon in Antwerp in 1920, and it was the first men's singles gold for a Briton since Josiah Ritchie in 1908.

Remarkably, Murray's workday was not yet complete as he and Laura Robson had qualified for the mixed doubles final having won their quarter final and semi final on the same day.

The pair started well against the number one seeds, Belarussians Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi, storming through the first set to win 6-2.

However, the gap in experience between women's world number one Azarenka and 18-year-old Robson began to show in the second set which went the way of the Belarus pair 6-3.

That set up a champions' tie-breaker - the first to 10 - and the Mirnyi-Azarenka partnership used the momentum to take an early 3-0 lead.

Murray and Robson were not yet finished, though, and a string of points brought it back to 6-6 at the second changeover.

From there, it was hard to pick a winner - but, once again, the Belarussians took control with three successive points to set up three championship points.

The first two were saved by Murray but there was no stopping an Azarenka smash on the third. Murray and Robson had to settle for silver - still an amazing achievement for the latter in particular, given her age.

Meanwhile, there was more success for Great Britain at the North Greenwich Arena where gymnasts Louis Smith and Max Whitlock took silver and bronze respectively on the pommel horse.

Smith was hugely unfortunate to miss out on gold as his brilliant routine lost out to Hungarian Krisztian Berki only on his execution score after they had tied overall.

Whitlock's placing emphasised the historic depth to this GB men's gymnastics team after he completed a clean routine to take advantage of some loose moves by earlier opponents.

Finally, back in the velodrome, Great Britain won another medal with Ed Clancy taking bronze in the men's Omnium.

Clancy was down in fifth with just one event left after finishing 10th in the scratch race. However, victory in the 1km time trial lifted him up to third on 30 points, not far short of actual gold medallist Lasse Norman Hansen of Denmark, on 27.

That made it another eight medals - two golds, four silvers, two bronzes - for Great Britain on day nine, which meant that the hosts consolidated its third place in the overall medal table.

Indeed, with eight golds and 22 medals coming in the three days since Friday, this was a simply amazing weekend for British sport - and long may the success continue!


MEDAL TABLE (Day 10, 12:28PM)
RankCountryGSBTotal
1CHINA (CHN)30171461
2United States (USA)28141860
3Great Britain & NI (GBR)16111037
4South Korea (KOR)104620
5France (FRA)88925
6Italy (ITA)65314
7Kazakhstan (KAZ)6006
8Germany (GER)510722
9Russian Federation (RUS)4161535
10Hungary (HUN)4138
11North Korea (PRK)4015
12Netherlands (NED)3148
13South Africa (RSA)3104
14New Zealand (NZL)3047
15Japan (JPN)2121327
16Romania (ROU)2428
16Denmark (DEN)2428
18Belarus (BLR)2237
19Cuba (CUB)2215
20Jamaica (JAM)2114
20Poland (POL)2114
22Ukraine (UKR)2057
23Ethiopia (ETH)2013
24Australia (AUS)112720
25Canada (CAN)13610
26Czech Republic (CZE)1315
27Sweden (SWE)1304
28Kenya (KEN)1225
29Brazil (BRZ)1157
30Slovenia (SLO)1124
31Croatia (CRO)1102
31Switzerland (SUI)1102
33Iran (IRN)1012
33Lithuania (LIT)1012
35Georgia (GEO)1001
35Venezuela (VEN)1001
37Mexico (MEX)0325
38Colombia (COL)0314
39Spain (ESP)0213
40Slovakia (SVK)0134
41India (IND)0123
41Azerbaijan (AZE)0123
43Belgium (BEL)0112
43Armenia (ARM)0112
43Mongolia (MGL) 0112
43Norway (NOR)0112
43Indonesia (INA) 0112
43Serbia (SBR)0112
49Egypt (EGY)0101
49Guatemala (GUA)0101
49Malaysia (MAS)0101
49Thailand (THA)0101
49Chinese Taipei (TPE)0101
54Greece (GRE)0022
54Moldova (MDA)0022
56Qatar (QAT)0011
56Singapore (SIN)0011
56Uzbekistan (UZB)0011
56Hong Kong (HKG)0011
56Tunisia (TUN)0011
56Argentina (ARG)0011

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