Wearing a reminder of his painful failure four years ago, Felix Sanchez redeemed himself on Thursday to win the Olympic gold medal in the 400m hurdles.
Since failing to make the semifinals at the 2000 Games, Sanchez has been wearing a flashing red wrist band, a souvenir from the closing ceremony in Sydney, at every race in which he competes.
Sanchez, a two-time world champion, hasn’t lost a race since Sydney and never looked threatened on Thursday, winning gold in 47,63 seconds, the fastest in the world this year.
Danny McFarlane of Jamaica got silver at 48,11. Naman Keita of France won bronze at 48,26.
Phillips soars in long jump
Dwight Phillips soared 8,59m in his first attempt to win the long-jump gold medal ahead of another American, John Moffitt.
Moffitt jumped a personal best of 8,47m to win silver and Joan Lino Martinez of Spain got bronze at 8,32m, also a personal best.
Unbeaten in his past 10 meets, Phillips set the tone immediately, then fouled on his next two attempts. He skipped the next two and went 8,35m in the final jump, although he knew by then that he had won the gold. Moffit’s silver-medal jump came in the fifth series and he went before Phillips in the final jump.
Defending Olympic champion Ivan Pedroso of Cuba placed seventh.
Holmes hopes for a double
Three days after ending years of futility by capturing the 800m Olympic medal, Kelly Holmes of Britain kept alive her hopes of a rare double when she cruised into the final of the 1 500m.
Hasna Benhassi of Morocco, the 800m silver medallist, also advanced.
Holmes finished second in her heat in a leisurely 4:04,77 — 0,11 seconds behind Natalya Yevdokimova of Russia.
World leader Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey qualified with the 11th-fastest time.
Holmes, a bronze medallist at the 2000 Sydney Games and fourth at Atlanta in 1996, won her first major title in the 800 on Monday, after a series of near-misses. She finished second in the 800m at the 2003 world championship, and third in that event and second in the 1 500m at the 1995 world championships.
She has spent much of the year training for the 1 500m. The final is on Saturday.
Only two women have completed the Olympic 800m and 1 500 double — Svetlana Masterkova in 1996 and Tatyana Kazankina in 1976.
”I’ve already got more than I expected so I am trying to keep myself down on a level and refocus for this event and it’s hard to keep that motivation going,” Holmes said.
”I don’t know what to expect any more. I’m just running each race and I’ll take what comes.”
Jones performs in relay
One day after qualifying for the final in the long jump, Marion Jones ran the second leg of the US 4x100m relay team that stormed into the final.
Jones’s participation had been a subject of speculation because she is being investigated by the US Anti-Doping Agency. However, she has not been charged with any doping offence and qualified on Wednesday for the long-jump finals.
Should Jones be found guilty of doping, the US could lose any medal it wins in the relay. However, Jones has vehemently denied ever taking banned performance-enhancing substances.
Jones failed to make the US team in the 100m and dropped out of the 200m at the US trials, although she had won both events four years ago in Sydney, where she also earned bronze in the long jump.
Both the long-jump and relay finals are on Friday.
Angela Williams, Jones, 100m silver medallist Lauryn Williams and LaTasha Colander matched their world-leading time of the year — 41,67 seconds.
Doucoure leads the 110m hurdles field
The semifinals of the 110m hurdles saw Ladji Doucoure of France lead the field in 13,06 seconds, a national record and the second-fastest time in the world this year.
Four-time world champion and world leader (13,05) Allen Johnson of the US fell in Wednesday’s second round and did not qualify.
Terrence Trammell of the US advanced second from Doucoure’s heat in 13,17 seconds.
Maurice Wignall won the other heat in 13,17, a Jamaican record.
Liu Xiang of China, the third-fastest (13,08) hurdler in the world this year, finished second in that heat in 13,18 and advanced to Friday’s final.
Wilfred Bungei of Kenya led the qualifiers for the men’s 800m final in 1:44,28. All the medal favourites advanced, including world record holder Wilson Kipketer of Denmark, except for Joseph Mutua of Kenya, the fifth-ranked runner this year. — Sapa-AP