| Williams produces awesome run |
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| Tuesday, 19 August 2008 | |
Shericka Williams
produced a stunning last 70 meters run to race to clock a personal best time
49.69 seconds to secure the silver medal in the 400 meters in the Olympic games
in Beijing, China on Tuesday.This added to Jamaica's medal tally which stands at two gold, and 3 silver medals. National champion Rosemarie Whyte finished seventh in 50.68 seconds in the event won by Britain's Christine Ohurugou in a season's best 49.62 second. Event favourite, American Sanya Richards faded badly to finish in third place. "Christine is an excellent competitor and I was ready to race her but ... what can I say, I did the best that I could under the circumstances. I'm just happy to be on the podium," said Richards. Hurdles finish out of medal standings Delloreen Ennis-London in 12.65 seconds and Brigitte Foster-Hylton in 12.66 seconds were fifth and sixth respectively in the finals of the 100 meter hurdles.. The event was taken in a surprise win by American Dawn Harper in a personal best time of 12.54 seconds. She beat teammate and favourite Lolo Jones who stumbled on the penultimate hurdle. J'cans through to 200 semis and final
One hundred
meter champion Usain Bolt stayed on course for the coveted sprint double when
he booked his place 200 meter final with a run of 20.03 seconds.Teammate Chris Williams in 20.45 seconds failed to advance. In the women's equivalent, defending champion Veronica Campbell-Brown clocked 22.64 seconds, Sherone Simpson in 22.60 seconds and Kerron Stewart in 22.72 seconds all progressed to the semi-finals. Athletes clocking season best runs Maurice Wignall and Richard Phillips both clocked season best times of 13.36 and 13.48 seconds respectively, to advance to the semifinals of the 110 meter hurdles. Chelsea Hammond leapt 6.60 meters to grab the 12th and final spot in Saturday's finals of the women's long jump. Hammond said she was looking forward to doing her best to secure one of the medals up for grabs. "Anything can happen. At these games I've seen the best fail to move forward while other people stepped their game up and I want to be one of those persons who stepped up their game," she said. Olivia McKoy immediately announced her retirement following her failure to qualify for the final of the javelin. "I think I've given enough to the sport and I'll go out now and help the younger ones," she said. Former JA representative medals for Britain In other finals
completed on Tuesday, former national representative Germaine Mason leapt to a
personal best 2.34 meters to win the silver medal for Great Britain in the high jump behind Russia's Andrey
Silnov 2.36 meters. Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain clocked 3minutes:32.94 to win the men's 1500 meters ahead of Kenya's Asbel Kipruto Kiprop and Nicolas Willis of New Zealand. Estonia's Gert Kanter landed 68.62 meters to win the men's discus ahead of 2004 champion Virgilijus Alekna who was third with 67.79 meters. Hope for more medals Apart from Bolts bid to complete the sprint double in the 200 meters final at 9.20 am Wednesday Jamaica time, the island will also be seeking glory in the women's 400 meters hurdles final set to get underway at 9.35am. Melaine Walker is fancied to secure the gold in this event after clocking 54.20 seconds to win her semi-final on Monday. The Americans Tiffany Ross-Williams in 53.54 seconds and Sheena Johnson-Tosta in 53.58 seconds are Walker's main danger. |