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Bolt Finishes With A Bang In 400 Relay

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By HOWARD FENDRICH The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 23, 2008

BEIJING - Usain Bolt loves the cameras, the cameras love Usain Bolt, and when they connected during his third victory lap of these Olympics, he smiled that infectious smile and raised three fingers.

As in: 3-for-3-for-3.

As in: three events, three gold medals, three world records.

Bolt capped his spectacular Summer Games by tearing through his portion of the 400-meter relay Friday night, setting up Jamaica's victory in 37.10 seconds to break a 16-year-old world record.

It was the perfect way to end a weeklong coming-out party that began with a world record of 9.69 in the 100 meters last Saturday, followed by a world record of 19.30 in the 200 meters Wednesday.

"The greatest Olympics ever," Bolt called it.

Who could argue?

Bolt joins quite a list: The only other men to win gold medals in the 100, 200 and the sprint relay at one Olympics are Carl Lewis in 1984, Bobby Morrow in 1956 and Jesse Owens in 1936. None of those greats set world records in either the 100 or 200, though, much less both.

"People can only dream of doing what he's done. He's basically cemented himself as a legend of track and field," said Bolt's relay teammate Michael Frater. "I don't think any performance can top what he's done here."

Bolt left no room for doubt in any of his three events at the Bird's Nest.

He won the 100 by 0.20, then the 200 by 0.66. The margin in the relay, 0.96 over second-place Trinidad and Tobago, was the biggest in that event at the Olympics since 1936. Japan was third.

The Jamaicans were overwhelming favorites in the women's 400 relay final, given that their squad boasted the 100 (Shelly-Ann Fraser) and 200 (Veronica Campbell-Brown) champions, along with the women who tied for silver in the 100 (Kerron Stewart and Sherone Simpson).

Second-leg runner Simpson tried to hand off the stick, vigorously shaking her hand forward, and Stewart tried to grab it, forcefully thrusting her hand backward, but they simply could not get the exchange done. Eventually, they bumped into each other, and Jamaica was disqualified. Russia won in 42.31.

In other medal events, Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won the women's 5,000 in 15 minutes, 41.40 seconds, more than 11/2 minutes slower than her world record, to add that gold to the one she earned in the 10,000; Steve Hooker won Australia's first track gold medal of these Summer Games and cleared an Olympic-record 19 feet, 63/4 inches (5.96 meters) in the pole vault; and Maurren Higa Maggi of Brazil leaped 23 feet, 11/4 inches (7.04 meters) on her first attempt to beat defending Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia by a half-inch in the women's long jump.

The long jump bronze went to Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria, who originally didn't qualify for the final but made the field when Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine was kicked out because she tested positive for a steroid after winning the silver medal in the heptathlon last weekend.

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