Felix bags third gold
Associated Press
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LONDON —By the time Allyson Felix was done with her part, her third gold medal of the Olympics was all but hanging around her neck.
Staking the U.S. team to more than a 2-second lead at the halfway point Saturday night, then watching Sanya Richards-Ross bring home the blowout victory, Felix added the 4×400-meter relay gold to the titles she won earlier in the 4×100 relay and 200-meter sprint.
“By the time I got the stick,” Richards-Ross said, “it was basically a victory lap.”
The United States finished in 3 minutes, 16.87 seconds — good for a 3.36-second rout over Russia, the biggest margin in the final of the long relay at the Olympics since East Germany beat the U.S. by 3.58 seconds in 1976.
Jamaica took third in 3:20.95.
“I think we were all pumped before this race,” Felix said. “There was a lot of emotion. We just wanted to close it out.”
The U.S. extended its Olympic winning streak in this event to five straight, dating to 1996.
Felix became the first U.S. woman to win three golds in Olympic track since 1988, when Florence Griffith-Joyner won the 100, 200 and 4×100 relay in Seoul.
Felix’s victories came nearly a quarter-century later and half a world away, though she’s now in the same stratosphere with some of the U.S. greats.
“London is very special to me,” said Felix, who now has a total of six Olympic medals.
The one she really wanted, of course, was the gold for the 200-meter sprint that eluded her in Athens and Beijing. After that, everything else was gravy in Britain, though Felix was hardly going through the motions in her last race of the games.
Handed about a 10-meter lead by teammate DeeDee Trotter, Felix ran the second leg in 47.8 seconds — 1.8 seconds faster than Russia’s Antonina Krivoshapka — to put a huge swath of track between her and the Russians before she handed off to Francena McCorory.
McCorory expanded the lead by another .49 seconds, then delivered it to Richards-Ross, who was basically running alone, loosely holding onto the baton as she breezed across the finish line.
All she had to do was pace herself and make sure she didn’t fall.
“It is a bit challenging to run at the front because you don’t want to run too fast and mess it up,” Richards-Ross said after earning her fifth career medal.
When it was over, Richards-Ross tucked the stick under her arm and started clapping. Then, one-by-one, Felix, Trotter and McCorory came over and the whole group embraced, huddling with their arms around each others’ shoulders. Also receiving gold will be Keshia Baker and Diamond Dixon, who ran in the preliminaries.
“It’s unbelievable,” Felix said. “I think about how I ended in Beijing, just feeling discouraged there. Four years later to have all this happen, to really accomplish every goal that I set out, is such a blessing.”
It marked yet another success for a U.S. track team that had pegged 30 medals as the goal to reach at the London Olympics. After Felix and her teammates were finished, the men’s 4×100 relay team and high jumper Brigetta Barrett both took silver to lift the U.S. team to 29. The marathon closes out the track schedule today, with 2004 silver medalist Meb Keflezighi in the race.
“I think the pressure was on to go out and do what we are capable of doing,” Trotter said of the 30-medal goal. “I think we finally hit the mark this time. We hit the center of the target. We got it done.”
The track meet could have been an even more rousing success for the United States had the men won more than the one medal they took in the 100, 200 and 400 — events they dominated for decades, until Usain Bolt came around.
But that’s not Felix’s fault.
And she’ll leave London having accomplished the same things Bolt did at these games: Three gold medals and one world record. Felix got hers (40.82 seconds) Friday night as part of the 4×100 relay team. Bolt got his in Saturday night’s men’s 4×100 (36.84).
Felix does, however, have one loss at these Olympics — her fifth-place finish in the 100 meters to open the track meet. That was the race she qualified for after finishing in a dead heat for third at Olympic trials, then earning the spot when her teammate, Jeneba Tarmoh, dropped out of a run-off.
Felix said she used the 100 for tuneup purposes. It turned out to be quite a good use of her time.
The 26-year-old has dabbled in the 100 and 400 over her career, which made her that rare runner who could help her team in both relays. A bit exhausting to run on back-to-back nights, but a chance to pick up more hardware, as well — and anyone who knows America’s history in the 4×400 knows there’s a very good chance the hardware can be of the golden variety. The U.S. has won the 4×400 at every Olympics and world championship since 2007.
“That’s the Dream Team, all day,” said Trotter, who also took bronze in the 400 meters.
Some track touts, knowing that Jamaica’s Novlene Williams-Mills had handed Richards-Ross her only loss in the 400 this year, predicted Jamaica — or maybe Russia — might give the United States a run in this race.
Sounded good in theory.
“On paper, it seemed like it was going to be a great race,” Richards-Ross said. “But by the time I got the stick, we had already dominated the race.”
It’s a great moment for the 27-year-old Jamaican native, as well.
Richards-Ross has dual citizenship and her parents moved to the U.S. when she was 12, in part because there were better training opportunities available in the States.
These days, she’s married to Jacksonville Jaguars defensive back Aaron Ross, who has two Super Bowl rings at home that will now share space with a few more gold medals. Richards-Ross has fought on and off the last five or six years with a hard-to-diagnose illness that causes fatigue and skin lesions. She fought with her own emotions after a disappointing bronze medal in the 400 in 2008.
No real stress this time, though, and the U.S. women hardly looked winded as they danced and circled the track with American flags held high behind their heads.
Team USA clinched the top spot in the medals table for the fifth consecutive Summer Games.
Russia capped a big day with wins by Mariya Savinova in the women’s 800 meters and Anna Chicherova in the women’s high jump — giving the traditional Olympic power six golds on the penultimate day of the games.
Caster Semenya of South Africa was right behind Savinova to earn a silver medal in her first Olympic final three years after being forced to undergo gender tests.
DIVING
David Boudia used to be scared to dive off the 10-meter platform. Yet when it counted the most, he never flinched.
The American plunged off the 33-foot tower, somersaulting and twisting over and over on his last dive to win an Olympic gold medal by 1.80 points over Qiu Bo of China on Saturday night in the closest men’s platform contest since 1988.
Boudia’s victory gave the U.S. its first gold in diving since 2000, and was the first by an American man since the late Mark Lenzi won the 3-meter springboard at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
“Oh, my God, I don’t have words for it,” said Greg Louganis, the diving great who swept the springboard and platform events at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics and who has mentored Boudia.
The American scored 568.65 points in the six-dive final after barely making it out of the preliminary rounds.
Qiu took the silver at 566.85 in the tightest contest since Louganis won the last of his four golds by 1.14 over Xiong Ni of China in Seoul.
SOCCER
Mexico earned its first Olympic gold medal in men’s soccer and left Brazil wondering if it will ever be able to add the title to its long list of triumphs.
Oribe Peralta scored 29 seconds into the final at Wembley Stadium and added another goal in the second half, leading Mexico to the 2-1 upset.
Hulk scored for Brazil in injury time, but Oscar missed a header in the final seconds to waste the last chance for a comeback in front of 86,162 fans.
BOXING
Bantamweight Luke Campbell won Britain’s first Olympic boxing gold medal in his division since 1908, dramatically knocking down rival John Joe Nevin of Ireland midway through the third round of a 14-11 victory.
China’s Zou Shiming, light welterweight Roniel Iglesias, middleweight Ryota Murata and Ukrainian heavyweight Oleksandr Usyk also won their divisions.
Shiming defended his light flyweight gold medal from Beijing with a 13-10 victory over Thailand’s Kaeo Pongprayoon, who angrily protested the result.
Iglesias beat Ukraine’s Denys Berinchyk 22-15 for Cuba’s first boxing gold in London after failing to win gold in Beijing.
Murata narrowly won the second boxing gold in Japan’s Olympic history, beating Brazil’s Esquiva Falcao 14-13 on the strength of a two-point holding penalty against Falcao in the final round.
Usyk capped the night with a 14-11 gold-medal victory over Clemente Russo of Italy, celebrating with a nimble Cossack dance in the center of the ring.
SAILING
Tamara Echegoyen, Angela Pumariega and Sofia Toro of Spain won the Olympic gold medal in women’s match racing, thanks in part to a boat-handling error by Australia that swept its skipper into the water.
With the best-of-five match tied at one, the boats were sailing nearly side-by-side downwind in the third race in big waves on Weymouth Bay when the Australian crew lost control and its boat rolled on its side. Skipper Olivia Price was swept out of the back of the boat and her crew had to pick her up before continuing.
Spain won that race by 1 minute, 1 second, but the 20-year-old Price and her crew won the fourth race to force a deciding match.
In another mistake, Price was assessed a penalty in Race 5 for a right-of-way violation and Spain sailed ahead to win the gold, leaving the Aussies with the silver.
CANOE SPRINT
Britain’s Ed McKeever won the men’s 200-meter kayak sprint in its Olympic debut, living up to his billing as “Usain Bolt on Water.”
McKeever powered his way to victory in 36.246 seconds in front of British Prime Minister David Cameron and his family. Spain’s Saul Craviotto Rivero was second and Canada’s Mark de Jonge beat France’s Maxim Beaumont to bronze by three-hundreths of a second.
Ukraine’s Yuri Cheban (men’s singles 200-meter canoe sprint) and New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington (women’s singles 200-meter kayak sprint) also won gold. Yury Postrigay and Alexander Dyachenko of Russia took the men’s 200 kayak sprint.
CYCLING – MOUNTAIN BIKE
Julie Bresset picked up the victory at her first Olympics, rolling through the English countryside and waving the French flag as she finished.
Bresset dominated the picturesque course at Hadleigh Farm. She took advantage of a mistake by defending gold medalist Sabine Spitz of Germany to build a massive lead, then rolled through the last of six laps all alone.
The 23-year-old Bresset started blowing kisses to cheering fans on the final straight. Spitz wound up with the silver medal, and Georgia Gould of the United States claimed bronze.
It was only the second Olympic medal in mountain biking for the Americans, who are credited with developing the sport in the 1970s. Susan DeMattei captured bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
GYMNASTICS – RHYTHMIC
Evgeniya Kanaeva became the first rhythmic gymnast to win two Olympic all-around titles, defending her gold medal from Beijing.
Russia has captured the last four Olympic individual titles. It also has a chance for another four-peat in Sunday’s group event, too.
Kanaeva posted the highest score in three of the four events and finished with 116.90 points. That was more than two points ahead of teammate Daria Dmitrieva. Liubou Charkashnya of Belarus won the bronze medal.
WRESTLING – FREESTYLE
Artur Taymazov of Uzbekistan won his third straight Olympic wrestling gold in the men’s 120-kilogram division, beating Georgia’s Davit Modzmanashvili in the final.
Taymazov joins Alexander Medved of the former Soviet Union and Russian great Alexander Karelin as the only male wrestlers to win gold medals in three straight games.
Azerbaijan won two titles, with Sharif Sharifov grabbing the gold in men’s 84-kg freestyle and Toghrul Asgarov taking the men’s 60-kg freestyle.
American Coleman Scott won a bronze medal in the 60-kg competition.
ELSEWHERE IN LONDON
Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago won the men’s javelin. … Norway retained its Olympic title in women’s team handball by beating Montenegro 26-23. … Germany defeated the Netherlands 2-1 to win its second straight men’s field hockey title and spoil a bid for a Dutch double in the sport. … Russia collected two gold medals in race-walk events, with Elena Lashmanova winning the women’s 20-kilometer and Sergei Kirdyapkin taking the men’s 50k. Lashmanova broke the world record with a time of 1 hour, 25 minutes, 2 seconds. … David Svoboda of the Czech Republic won the men’s modern pentathlon. … Taekwondo golds went to Italy’s Carlo Molfetta (men’s plus 80-kilogram) and Serbia’s Milica Mandic (women’s plus 67-kg). It was Serbia’s first gold of the games.
