LONDON — While Usain Bolt pondered his date with history Thursday at the London Olympics, an eight-year-old doping case came back to haunt a medal-winning American cyclist and Oscar "The Blade Runner" Pistorius waited for a relay baton that never came.
And, by the way, the sun was shining brightly on probably the most brilliant weather day so far at the games.
Pistorius,
a double amputee who runs on carbon fiber blades, was supposed to run
the third leg of the 4×400-meter relay Thursday morning at the Olympic
Stadium. But Ofentse Mogawane, running the section before him, collided
with a Kenyan runner with about 90 meters from the finish and fell off
the track.
While other runners took off with their batons after
the changeover, Pistorius glanced back to see the baton wasn’t coming,
and dejectedly walked off the track.
Pistorius became the first
amputee runner to compete in the Olympic track and field competition
when he ran in the 400 earlier in the week — reaching the semifinals.
South Africa won a silver medal in the relay at the world championships
last year.
The morning qualifying sessions came under sunny skies,
high humidity and with a temperature of about 23 Celsius (74
Fahrenheit), although the weather office was calling for possible
showers later in the day.
Bolt is looking to win the 200-meter
race to add to his gold in the 100. If so, he’d be the first Olympian to
repeat the so-called sprint double.
Bolt won both the 100 and 200
— in world record times — in Beijing four years ago and with the 100
gold already collected, he joined Carl Lewis as the only athlete to win
the race at successive games.
Training partner Yohan Blake, who beat Bolt in both the 100 and 200 at the Jamaican trials, is Bolt’s main threat in the 200.
“There’s a lot of people there who have come to spoil the party, so we’ll see,” Bolt said after cruising into the final.
Bolt did not break his 100-meter record but says he could lower his 200 mark of 19.19.
“There’s a possibility, definitely,” he said. “I can’t say (for sure), but the track is fast. It’s going to be a good race.”
In
doping news, an Olympic official familiar with the case said the IOC is
set to formally strip American cyclist Tyler Hamilton of his gold from
the 2004 Athens Games and reassign the medals after his admission of
doping.
With the eight-year deadline approaching, the official
told The Associated Press the IOC executive board will meet Friday to
readjust the standings from the road race time trial. The official spoke
on condition of anonymity because the decision hasn’t been announced
yet.
The gold will now go to retired Russian rider Viatcheslav
Ekimov. American Bobby Julich will be moved up from bronze to silver,
and Michael Rogers of Australia from fourth to bronze.
Eton Dorney lake west of London was the early location for medals when kayakers and canoeists had four golds presented.
Peter
Kretschmer and Kurt Kuschela of Germany won the gold medal in the men’s
1,000-meter C-2. The Australian team of Tate Smith, Dave Smith, Murray
Stewart and Jacob Clear surprised the favored crews of Hungary and
Slovakia to take gold in the men’s 1,000-meter K-4.
Danuta Kozak
of Hungary won the women’s 500-meter K-1, her country’s third gold of
the canoe sprint regatta, and Tina Dietze and Franziska Weber of Germany
took the gold in women’s kayak double 500-meter sprint.
Later,
the women’s football final will have a familiar ring to it: two-time
defending champion the United States plays reigning world champion Japan
at Wembley in a repeat of last year’s World Cup final in Frankfurt that
the U.S. team lost in a penalty shootout.
“I’ve been hoping for this final,” U.S. forward Abby Wambach said, “from the moment I stepped off the podium in Germany.”
Canada plays France in the bronze medal final.
Back
at the Olympic Stadium, another capacity crowd is expected to watch the
men’s 800 meters, triple jump and decathlon along with the women’s
javelin.
And Horse Guards Parade hosts its last two beach
volleyball matches of the Olympics, the third-fourth playoff followed by
the final between Alison and Emanuel of Brazil and Germans Julius Brink
and Jonas Reckermann.
