The top-ranked Americans had fought back to force a fifth set against Serbia before falling short – short of the gold-medal goal that had driven her and others back to the national team for one more Olympic cycle.
Advertisement
Bronze went, unexpectedly, to France’s 2010 champion Christophe Lemaitre, whose time of 20.12 was the same credited to Britain’s 2014 European champion Adam Gemili. But after a US appeal a judges panel ruled that Felix had been bumped by a Brazilian runner as she began the exchange and granted the USA a chance to attempt reach a qualifying time in a time trial Thursday night.
Field events haven’t gotten much airtime in Rio, so it’s easy to miss the stack of medals the US has accumulated in the throwing and jumping events.
Kevin Mayer of France wins the silver medal ahead of Damian Warner of Canada, who takes bronze.
The American set a new Olympic record with his 8,893 points total, to go with the world record he already holds.
He still had to run well in the dreaded 1,500 metres – the only endurance event in the entire run, jump and throw discipline – and when he crossed the line, knowing he’d won an Olympic medal, his first thought was for those who helped get him this far.
Eaton carried a lead into Thursday’s second half of the event, which featured the 110m hurdles (2nd), discus (8th), pole vault (3rd), javelin (18th) and 1500m (4th).
“They gave me something to shoot for”, he said.
“There was some pressure to make it to the finals”, Powell said, clearly relieved he didn’t have to deliver any bad news to his friend, who was busy preparing for the 200 final. “I’m getting old”, said Bolt, who was trying to break his own world record of 19.19.
European champion Sara Slott Peterson of Denmark took silver in 53.55 on Thursday, and the United States picked up another bronze medal with Ashley Spencer storming home to finish third in personal best 53.72. However, the Americans won an appeal because they were bumped by a Brazilian runner causing the mishap.
With Michelle Carter taking gold in the women’s shot put the U.S.accomplished the sweep, and both attended the University of Texas.
For a few short moments, the US women’s 4×100 relay team was a little like Bolt: They were the only ones everyone was looking at.
With just the clock and the crowd for company, they took the baton around in 41.77 seconds to knock slowest-qualifier China out the final.
Eaton tied the Olympic record of 8,893 points and defended the title he won in London.
The Frenchman won the silver with 8,834 points and Warner got the bronze with 8,666 points.
“Before we went out our coach said, ‘Its just like a practice; it’s just that the whole world is watching.’ I feel like we ran pretty fast by ourselves”.
Advertisement
That’s where Warner chose to forge his own path in the decathlon by focusing on speed and throws, instead of obsessing over matching Eaton’s strengths in the jumps. He finished the final event – the 1,500 metres- in fourth place in a time of four minutes 24.90 seconds. “It was different. Running without any competition is just odd, but I think we are good”.
