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US, Jamaica take 6 of 8 spots in women's 100 final
2008-08-17
BEIJING - American and Jamaican sprinters grabbed six of the eight spots in the Olympic women's 100-meter final Sunday, with Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser and Kerron Stewart leading the way in their respective semifinals. Defending Olympic champion Yuliya Nesterenko of Belarus failed to advance. Sherone Simpson was the third runner from Jamaica to make the gold-medal round, set for later Sunday, as the Caribbean island hoped someone could join men's champion Usain Bolt for a gold-medal sweep of track's glamor event. America's three entrants, Lauryn Williams, Torri Edwards and Muna Lee, all made it, as well. Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas and Jeanette Kwakye of Britain rounded out the final eight. Bolt returned to the Bird's Nest on Sunday night to collect the gold medal he won with his hot-dogging world-record performance of 9.69 seconds the night before. While he was the fastest of all-time, the women went through their qualifying at a more pedestrian pace. Stewart was the only runner in the field to break 11 seconds in any of the 15 heat races or semifinals. The world record is 10.49, held by Florence Griffith-Joyner. "I'm in there. That's the hardest part," said Williams, who lost by an excruciating .01 second to Veronica Campbell-Brown at last year's world championships. Maybe they were saving up for later. Despite the slow times, the women's 100 is considered one of the deepest fields at these Olympics, so deep that Campbell-Brown didn't even qualify through Jamaican trials. American Allyson Felix, who many thought would be a candidate for a 100-200 double at these games, also didn't make it through trials. Americans LoLo Jones, Dawn Harper and Damu Cherry also made it through the first round of women's 100-meter hurdles qualifying -- with Cherry overcoming flu-like symptoms to earn a wild-card spot and the other two making it by finishing in the top two. "I'm glad to finally be able to run," Jones said. "We've been sitting around the village for two weeks now. It's like, 'Come on, when do we get to run?'" They'll do it again Monday in the semifinals. In the women's 400, three-time U.S. national champion Sanya Richards won her semifinal in 49.90 seconds to move into Tuesday's finals where she'll go for an individual gold to go with the relay gold she won at the Athens Olympics. Americans Mary Wineberg and Dee Dee Trotter each failed to advance. "Oh, man, I feel I can just taste it now," said Richards, who has dominated the event but never won a world championship or Olympic gold medal, in part because she has suffered from a rare disease that caused painful sores on her body and in her mouth. The night also brought the second world record of the 10-day meet, when Gulnara Galkina-Samitova of Russia finished the first Olympic women's 3,000-meter steeplechase final in 8 minutes, 58.81 seconds to beat the mark she already held by nearly 3 seconds. Conditions were ideal -- weather was clear and breezy with temperatures in the low 70s. The temperature wasn't much different from earlier in the day, when Romania's Constantina Tomescu-Dita won the marathon in 2 hours, 26 minutes, 44 seconds. So much has been made of the weather in Beijing, especially for the long-distance races, but it turned out to not be a problem. A light rain on the course that began near Tiananmen Square and wound around the Forbidden City before ending at the stadium was a blessing for the runners, who came in ready for muggy air and smog. "The weather helped me a lot," said Tomescu-Dita, the 2005 world championship bronze medalist who lives and trains in Boulder, Colo. "I'm very happy because it's not very, very hot." World record-holder Paula Radcliffe of Britain had to stop several times to work out pain in her legs after deciding only earlier this week to race in her fourth Olympics even though she's recovering from a stress fracture in her thigh. She finished 23rd, nearly six minutes back. American record-holder Deena Kastor, the bronze medalist four years ago in Athens, was forced to stop just more than 3 miles into the race because of a broken right foot. With Magda Lewy also pulling out because of a knee ailment, the only American to finish was Blake Russell -- 27th place (2:33:13). On Sunday night, Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia won the gold medal in the men's hammer throw.
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