MILESTONE & MEDAL: Christine Sinclair scored in her 250th global match and Canada returned to the Olympic podium with a 2-1 victory over hosts Brazil for the women’s soccer bronze medal.
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Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won his third gold medal of the 2016 Rio Olympics and his ninth career Olympic gold in the mens 4x100m relay on Friday night. US women also won gold in 2012, making them the only two-time winners since the event was introduced in 2000.
And together with the rest of the 4×100-meter relay team, she brought the United States closer to its biggest medal haul in decades.
The Americans only made it into the final under the most unusual of circumstances.
Lithuania’s Laura Asadauskaite established a new Olympic record in the running/shooting portion with a combined time of 12:01.01, but the 2012 Olympic gold medalist finished 31st overall. Residents of Rio de Janeiro have been irked by bad review of the stuffy, puffy treats.
Klay Thompson’s 22 points led the Americans to their third straight Olympic gold-medal game with an 82-76 win over Spain, the silver medalist in both Beijing and London.
Bolt needed the help of his 4x100m relay teammates to win his last Olympic gold before retirement, but not as much as they needed his help to win the medal.
The women’s team was smooth, despite the rocky path to the final.
Bolt may lose one of his nine gold medals – the relay gold from London owing to the drug indiscretion of another on his team – but just as this medal statistically enhances Bolt’s reputation by virtue only of the weight of numbers in his favour, the removal of one will not diminish his standing. Every four years, the USA squad proves to be snake-bit: a disqualification in 2008, a stripped silver in 2012 after Tyson Gay’s doping violation. But the efforts of the Olympic week appeared to catch up with her as she slumped late in the Saturday night race. She still made it to Olympic Stadium on Friday night for the women’s pole vault competition but was clearly hampered. It’s happened. I am just happy, proud of myself.
“I’m just waiting to see what the media have to say and if they put me in that bracket”, he said when asked how he stacked up against football star Pele and boxing legend Ali. There was an upset as Vivian Cheruiyot powered past slumping favorite Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia and set an Olympic record of 14 minutes, 26.17 seconds. American Shelby Houlihan finished 11th with a time of 15:08.89. Hamblin was one of two runners who crashed in the first-round heat, along with the United States’ Abbey D’Agostino, and sacrificed any shot at a medal by helping each other up.
The men’s 4×400 team, a second-place finisher four years ago, advanced to the final, finishing second in its heat with a time of 2:58.38, which was 0.09 seconds behind the Jamaican squad.
“All I wanted to do was run the 200 meters and win Olympic gold medal once”, he said. “Nine gold medals, words can’t even describe what he’s done for the sport”.
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In February, Bolt confirmed he would retire after the 2017 World Championships in London and will not compete at Tokyo 2020, at which point he will be almost 34. Even though he’ll be just 33 when the Tokyo Games take place four years from now, he promises he won’t stick around for 2020 or entertain any second thoughts. I never said this was my last Olympics.
