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

The woman to beat in the women’s high jump competition is not from the US or Russia or China. She’s a 24-year-old Croatian woman, Blanka Vlasic. Vlasic is named for the Moroccan port city of Casablanca, where her father competed in the 1983 Mediterranean Games at the time of her birth. She’s the current World Champion and 2008 World Indoor Champion.

Vlasic, 24, competed in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, but failed to medal.

Post from: EveryJoe

Athletes to Watch: Blanka Vlasic