Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic added the Olympic gold medal — and the Olympic mark — to his world record by completing a come-from-behind victory on Tuesday in the decathlon.
Sebrle collected 8 893 points over the gruelling two-day event to break Daley Thompson’s 20-year-old Olympic record of 8 847.
The Czech, who holds the world record at 9 026, finally captured his first major title after taking silver four years ago in Sydney and finishing second at last year’s world championship.
The other two medallists also set records. Bryan Clay of the United States set a personal best of 8 820 for silver and Dmitriy Karpov of Kazakhstan set an Asian record of 8 725 for bronze.
Sebrle climbed his way from fourth and took the lead only after the javelin, the ninth of the 10 events, with a toss of 70,52m.
Clay also climbed to second after the javelin, but Karpov lost the lead and dropped to third.
Joanna Hayes of the US won the 100m hurdles in an Olympic-record time of 12,37 seconds after Canadian favourite Perdita Felicien tripped over the first hurdle and did not finish the race.
Felicien, the reigning world champion, hit the first hurdle and stumbled into Russia’s Irina Shevchenko — sending both sprawling to the track.
The Russian team filed a protest and asked for a rerun. There was no immediate ruling.
Olena Krasovska of Ukraine won silver in 12,45 seconds and Melissa Morrison of the US was third in 12,56 — if the results are confirmed.
Kenya on top
Ezekiel Kemboi led a Kenyan sweep in the 3 000m steeplechase and Tonique Williams-Darling of the Bahamas beat world champion Ana Guevara of Mexico to win the 400m in 49,41 seconds.
Kemboi waved to urge his teammates on as the three Kenyans came into the final straight leading the race.
He turned around to make sure the two were behind him, then raised his hands to cross the line in eight minutes and 5,81 seconds.
”I said there were two guys behind them who might overtake them. I wanted to have a clean sweep and not let them spoil our party,” Kemboi said.
Kemboi won silver at the world championships last year after misreading the lap counter, thinking there were two laps remaining instead of five.
Brimin Kipruto got silver in 8:06,11 and Paul Kipsiele Koech, the fastest in the distance this year, won bronze in 8:06,64.
The three Kenyans controlled the race from the start and embraced as soon as they crossed the line. The Kenyans have gone at least 1-2 in the steeplechase since the 1988 Games.
Guevara pulled even with Williams-Darling coming into the final straight and was half a step ahead but could not respond to Williams-Darling’s acceleration.
The Mexican clocked 49,56 seconds and Natalya Antyukh of Russia won bronze in 49,89.
Guevara missed more than two months of training because of tendonitis in her left Achilles tendon and ran in just three races leading up to the Games. Williams-Darling, ranked number one, ended Guevara’s 29-race winning streak in Rome in July.
Drug woes continue
Two more doping cases tarnished the competition.
Robert Fazekas of Hungary, who won the discus on Monday with an Olympic record throw of 70,93m, was disqualified from the competition and expelled from the Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board.
Fazekas was accused of trying to dodge a post-competition doping test. Hungarian team officials said he couldn’t provide a urine sample.
He is the second athlete in two days to lose a gold medal for doping. Russian shot-putter Irina Korzhanenko’s gold was recalled on Monday after she tested positive for steroids.
In another case, high jumper Aleksey Lesnichiy of Belarus was kicked out of the games on Tuesday after testing positive for the steroid clenbuterol, the IOC said. He failed to clear a height in Friday’s qualifying round.
Fazekas never got to wear the gold medal because the award ceremony wasn’t held until Tuesday night. The title went instead to Lithuania’s Virgilijus Alekna, who had finished second with a throw of 69,89m. Another Hungarian, Zoltan Kovago, was bumped from bronze to silver. Fourth-place finisher Aleksander Tammert of Estonia moved to third.
Another female shot-putter, Uzbekistan’s Olga Shchukina, tested positive for clenbuterol in a pre-Athens screening. She finished 19th and last in her qualifying group and was expelled from the games on Friday. — Sapa-AP