Shawn Crawford of the US takes the 200m title (© Getty Images)
On a great night for the United States team, with two golds, two silvers and a bronze from just three finals, it was a less good night for the Athenian fans in the Olympic stadium here.
USA sweep
The scenes before the highlight of the night’s events, the men’s 200 metres final, were unprecedented in modern sport, as the Greek majority of the 70,000 capacity crowd barracked, booed and whistled, making it impossible for the seven athletes (in the absence of Asafa Powell) and the officials to get the race underway for more than five minutes.
Despite repeated polite requests to respect the athletes and be quiet for the start, the misguided chants of protest for Kostas Kederis, the 2000 gold medal-winner who opted not to compete at these Games, continued, even to the point of unsettling Namibia’s Frank Fredericks, the most experienced man in the field, competing in his fifth Olympic final in a career stretching back 12 years. And this was to be his final Olympic race.
Nothing seemed to shake Shawn Crawford’s resolve, though.
Once the starter’s gun fired, the American was unstoppable. The 26-year-old based in North Carolina came off the bend with clear daylight showing between him and his team mates, Justin Gatlin, the 100m gold medallist, and Bernard Williams, drawn in lanes either side of him.
The US trio surged clear of the rest of the field, as if there were two classes in this Olympic final. All three clocked times faster than the Sydney Olympics winning performance, with Crawford running faster than ever before with 19.79, the eighth fastest of all-time, and Williams equalling his 20.01 best. Gatlin, with 20.03, took bronze, his dreams of the sprint double denied.
The Americans said that they were forewarned of what might occur, and that they were not affected by it. “It was like showtime at the Apollo Theater,” the colourful Williams said. “When the crowd’s booing, there’s nothing you can do about it.
“I got a glimpse of it yesterday. When I smiled, they booed. But now everything’s alright.”
The United States’ first cleansweep of this event since 1984 might at last establish Crawford as an athlete more than the showman, for which he has a reputation. Once he raced a zebra and a giraffe on American television, beating the latter but outsprinted by the former. He demanded a rematch, accusing the zebra of a false start.
“Now I think I could beat the zebra,” Crawford said.
Phillips restores normal pattern of American success
Since the first Olympics were staged in this city 108 years ago, the men’s Long Jump has been a constant on the Games programme, and has only been won by non-Americans on three occasions.
Thus Ivan Pedroso’s gold for Cuba in Sydney four years ago was extraordinary on that level alone. Tonight, Dwight Phillips made sure normal service was resumed.
IAAF World Ranked No.1 coming into the Athens Games, the World champion indoors and out stamped his authority from the first. Trouble was, Phillips pretty much killed off the competition with his first-round 8.59 metres jump, 1cm short of his best ever.
“I haven’t lost a competition all year, and I wasn’t going to start here,” Phillips said.
His next two jumps were big but were judged to be fouls, the third pushing his bodyweight so far forward that he landed face first in the sand. He then limped from the pit and passed the next two jumps. In the final round, he recorded 8.35m, the third longest jump of the evening.
“I still feel like an eight-year-old when I’m competing. I’m in it for the love and passion I have for it,” Phillips has said, and he was now able to savour the moment when he became Olympic champion.
The 26-year-old Arizonan’s performance should not be underestimated in any way: since Mexico City in 1968 - and we all know what Beamonesque transformation occurred there - only Carl Lewis in 1992 has jumped further in winning gold.
Phillips’s team mate, John Moffitt, grabbed himself the silver with his lifetime best 8.47 in the fifth round, trumping the personal best 8.32 of Spain’s Joan Lino Martinez. Pedroso could only manage 8.23m to finish seventh.
Sanchez remains supreme
In the one final of the night where the Americans were denied any medals at all, it was a boy from New York City, Felix Sanchez, who took a well deserved gold in the 400 metres Hurdles.
Born in New York but competing for his parents’ home country, the Dominican Republic, Sanchez was given a much sterner test than he often encounters, as the American champion, James Carter, charged round the irst 250 metres to put Sanchez under intense pressure by leading into the home straight.
But in gambling for gold, Carter ended up empty-handed, finishing fourth as he was four years ago at the Sydney Games. As Carter faded in the final few metres he was passed by Jamaica’s Danny McFarlane and Frenchman Narman Keita, who swooped in from only seventh with two flights to run.
Sanchez drove himself hard down the straight to set a world leading 47.63, McFarlane 48.11, Keita 48.26, and Carter - the fastest in the world until tonight - was left slumped on the track in despair after his 48.58 effort.
Steven Downes for the IAAF
Click here for full reports from all tonight's events
------------
LIVE 'Event by Event' Olympic Coverage
Comprehensive coverage of all the news and events from the Athletics competitions of the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens, including Previews, Features, and Interviews -
CLICK HERE for PREVIEWS and EVENT by EVENT REPORTS
Full competition news will be published at the end of every preliminary / qualification round, quarter/semi-finals, and final stage - ie. not after each individual heat - from all Athletics disciplines.
Latest Olympic PHOTOGRAPHS, click here
The IAAF Internet reporting team in Athens
Laura Arcoleo, Matthew Brown, Steven Downes, Ed Gordon, Bob Ramsak, and Chris Turner.
IAAF Statistics Team: Ottavio Castellini, Carlos Fernandez Canet
IAAF Results Team: Emanuele Perotti-Nigra, Raffaella Risso, Miroslav Tudan
IAAF
