Beijing Olympic – Athletics Day 1 Review: Dibaba takes Olympic record
In an action-packed start to the Athletics, the blue-ribbon of the Games, the Men’s 100m got under way without great upset. Polish Shot Putter Tomasz Majewski won the first Athletics gold medal of the Games in the Men’s Shot Put final, throwing a personal best of 21.51m, while Ethiopian runner Tirunesh Dibaba broke an Olympic record in the Women’s 10000m. Day Two is sure to be a thriller.
Women’s Heptathlon — Day One
Hyleas Fountain is the halfway leader of the Heptathlon with 4060 points. This followed the 100m Hurdles, High Jump, Shot Put and 200m events. Close behind her are Nataliia Dobrynska of the Ukraine on 3996 points and Kelly Sotherton of Great Britain with 3938 points.
Fountain was the early leader after the morning session, in which she ran 12.78 for the 100m hurdles and jumped 1.89m in the High Jump. In the evening she ran the 200m with a personal best of 23.21 to secure the overnight leadership.
The Olympic Heptathlon will continue August 16 at the National Stadium, starting at 9:00 a.m. (UTC/GMT +8).
Men’s 100m — preliminaries
Usain Bolt served notice of his intentions in the Men’s 100m, running the day’s best of 9.92 to reach the semifinals. Also joining him in the next round are 2007 world champion Tyson Gay, fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell, and Athens 2004 Olympic Games Silver silver medalist Francis Obikwelu of Portugal.
Bolt’s time put him ahead of Churandy Martina of the Netherlands and Antilles and Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, who now go into tomorrow night’s semifinal ranked equal second, with both athletes finishing in 9.99 seconds.
Hammer Throw — preliminaries
The qualifying rounds of this morning’s Men’s Hammer Throw event will push twelve competitors into the final on Sunday night, August 17. The top qualifier, Krisztian Pars of Hungary, threw a distance of 80.07m, clear of second place qualifier Szymon Ziolkowski of Poland, who threw a personal season best of 79.55m.
Women’s 800m — preliminaries
Women’s 800m favorite Pamela Jelimo of Kenya comfortably won her round one race in 2:03.18, but Sydney 2000 Olympic Games gold medal winner Maria Mutola of Mozambique ran the best time with 1:58.91.
Men’s 1500m — preliminaries
Kenya’s Asbel Kirputo Kiprop scored a psychological blow over Men’s 1500m favorite Bernard Lagat, when he finished first in their heat, but Lagat secured his place in the semifinals by finishing fourth.
Women’s Discus Throw — preliminaries
Stephanie Brown Trafton from the United States is still in the lead after the qualifying round of the Discus event. Her distance of 62.77m was .26m further than her closest rival, Nicoleta Grasu. Trafton’s throw was also 4.23m farther than her throw in Athens 2004 where she did not make it into the finals.
This improvement could very well mean a medal for Trafton in the final. Nicoleta Grasu has beaten Iryna Yatchenko’s of Group group A’s throw with her result, 62.51m, which puts Grasu in second place and Iryna in third. Iryna won bronze in Athens 2004 and will absolutely definitely be in contention for a medal this time around. All three will battle it out in the upcoming final on August 18 in the National Stadium.
Women’s Triple Jump — preliminaries
Yargelis Savigne of Cuba was the highest-ranked qualifier with a leap of 14.99m, followed by Greece’s Hrysopiyi Devetzi who jumped 14.92m. Victoria Gurova of Russian was the third highest-ranked qualifier with 14.78m.
Men’s 400m Hurdles
Markino Buckley of Jamaica ran the fastest time of round one in the Men’s 400m Hurdles preliminaries at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on Friday, August 15, at the National Stadium.
His personal best time of 48.65 seconds put him ahead of Angelo Taylor of the United States, who ran second fastest to qualify for the semifinals with a time of 48.67, while Danny McFarlane of Jamaica goes into the semifinal ranked third, finishing in 48.86 seconds.
Men’s Shot Put Final
Tomasz Majewski of Poland won the first Athletics gold medal of the Games in the Men’s Shot Put final. His best throw of 21.51m put him ahead of Christian Cantwell of the United States, whose throw of 21.09m won him the silver, while bronze went to Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus with a throw of 21.05m.
The 2.04m tall Majewski took control of the competition from the start and did not look like relinquishing control during his next five attempts.
Majewski set a new personal best of 21.04m in the qualifying rounds this morning, only to beat it again with his gold medal winning 21.51m throw in the finals.
Athens 2004 silver medalist Adam Nelson caused the biggest shock of the day, failing to mark any of his throws.
“I had some big throws and big fouls. Unfortunately they didn’t count. There is not much good to take out of this. I was just throwing down the left sector line and I don’t really do that often. It’s inexcusable,” he said after the event.
In another twist to form, first-ranked qualifier after the preliminaries and defending Olympic champion Ukraine’s Yuriy Bilonog came in sixth with a season best, a 20.63m throw.
Women’s 10000m Final
Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won gold and set a new Olympic Record today in the Women’s 10000m.
Dibaba’s time of 29:54.66 was enough to break the old record of 30:17.49 set by fellow Ethiopian Derartu Tulu and hold off silver medalist Elvan Abeylegess of Turkey who ran a time of 29:56.34. Bronze went to Shalane Flanagan of the United States in a time of 30:22.22.
Kenya’s Linet Chepkwemoi Masai set a new world junior record as well as a new Kenyan record with a time of 30:26.50, while fifth place getter, Maria Konovalova of Russia set a new personal best of 30:35.84.
Women’s 3000m Steeplechase
In the first ever Women’s 3000m Steeplechase to be contested at an Olympic Games, Russians Gulnara Galkina-Samitova and Tatiana Petrova threw down the gauntlet to the Kenyan competitors by winning the first two of three heats.
Eunice Jepkorir fought back for the Kenyans in the third heat, finishing with 9:21.31 ahead of the third Russian Ekaterina Volkova, who comfortably qualified for Sunday’s final in third.
(Source: en.beijing2008.cn)