The American women took the Gold Medal in the women’s 4×400m relay, with anchor Sanya Richards passing Russian, Anastasia Kapachinskaya in the final meters. The Russian women took the Silver Medal and the Jamaican team earned the Bronze. In addition to Richards, the US team included Allyson Felix, Monique Henderson, and Mary Weinberg.

Nancy Langat of Kenya took the Gold Medal in the women’s 1500m event, followed by Iryna Lishchynskia and Nataliya Tobias of Ukraine for the Silver and Bronze Medals, respectively. American Shannon Rowbury finished in seventh place.

In the women’s high jump event, Belgium’s Tia Hellebaut surprised everyone by beating strong favorite, Blanka Vlasic of Croatia, who hadn’t lost the event in 34 meets. Vlasic got the Silver Medal and Anna Chicherova of Russia earned the Bronze Medal.

In the men’s 5000m contest, Kenensia Bekele of Ethiopia finished first for the Gold Medal. Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya and his countryman, Edwin Cheruiyot Soi earned the Silver and Bronze Medals. Bekele won the Gold Medal in the men’s 10,000m event earlier in the Beijing Olympic meet.

It was never a contest in the men’s 4×400 relay. The American men–Angelo Taylor, Jeremy Wariner, LaShawn Merritt, and David Neville–took the lead early and never relinguished it. The Silver Medal went to the team from the Bahamas and the Bronze Medal was awarded to the Russian team.

The men of the Baltic nations swept the men’s javelin competition, with Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen , the defending Olympic champion, winning the Gold Medal. Ainars Kovals of Latvia took the Silver and Tero Pitkamaki of Finland earned the Bronze Medal. Thorkildsen set a new Olympic record of 90.57m.

Kenya won its first ever Gold Medal in the mens 800m event with Wilfred Kipkemboi Bungei’s win in Beijing. Ismail Ahmed of Sudan finished second for the Silver Medal and Alfred Kirwa of Kenya finished third for the Bronze Medal. Kenya, with its long history of Medals in the long distance events, had never won the mens 800m.

^{(photo of Nancy Langat © Newscom)}

Post from: EveryJoe

Scenes from the Bird’s Nest – August 23

In the women’s 5000m event, Ethiopa’s Tirunesh Dibaba Kenene took the Gold Medal, her second of the Beijing Olympic Games. She was followed to the finish line by Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey for the Silver Medal and Meseret Defar Tola of Ethiopia for the Bronze Medal.

Dibaba also won the Gold Medal in the women’s 10,000 event. She is the first woman to win both long distance events in a single Olympics. American Kara Goucher finished ninth.

In the womens long jump competition, Brazil’s Maurren Higa Maggi took the Gold Medal. The Silver Medal went to defending Olympic champion, Tatiana Debedeva of Russia and the Bronze Medal was awarded to Blessing Okhagbare of Nigeria.

In the women’s 4×100m relay, the drama continued as the Jamaican women botched the hand-off in the final race, causing them the favorites to be disqualified and ruining the Jamaica’s hopes of a perfect eight for eight Gold Medals in the sprinting events. The Russian women prevailed to win the Gold Medal, followed by the Belgians for the Silver and the Nigerian team for the Bronze Medal.

It was all business to the Jamaican men in the 4×100m relay. The team, including Usain Bolt, easily bested the field and set a new world record time of 37.10. It was the third Olympic Gold Medal in Beijing for Bolt.

The men from Trinidad and Tobago took the Silver Medal and the Japanese team took the Bronze Medal.

Australian, Steve Hooker set a new Olympic record of 5.96m/16-6.5 with his Gold Medal performance in the pole vault. Evgeny LUkyanenko of Russia took the Silver Medal and Denys Yurchenko of Ukraine took the Bronze Medal.

Post from: EveryJoe

Scenes from the Bird’s Nest – August 22

The Ethiopian distance runner have set a number of records in his events over the years.

World Records as of August 2005

* 5,000 m indoor world record 12:49.60 (Birmingham, England, on February 20, 2004)
* 5,000 m world record 12:37.35 (Hengelo, Netherlands, on May 31, 2004) from compatriot Haile Gebrselassie at 12:39.36 (on June 13, 1998)
* 10,000 m world record 26:17.53 (Brussels, Belgium, on August 26, 2005, breaking his previous record of 26:20.31 from June 8, 2004, which at the time replaced Gebrselassie’s former record at 26:22.75 from June 1, 1998).

It was just 2004 when he broke the records in the indoor 5,000m, outdoor 5,000m and outdoor 10,000m.

When Bekele participated during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, he took home the gold and silver for the 10,000m and the 5,000m events, respectively. It was his race in the outdoor 10K meter during the 2004 Athens Games that he took Gebrselassie’s title and only to break the record again a year later [see 3rd *].

Source: Wikipedia

Post from: EveryJoe

Who is Kenenisa Bekele?