Olympics Day 11: Hurdles Heartbreak
In Athens, it was Perdita Felicien. In Beijing, it was Lolo Jones.
The 100-meter hurdles is a tough race.
Four years ago, Canada's Felicien was a big favorite going into the race, but crashed into the first hurdle and didn't finish. This morning, Iowa's Jones was the favorite, and was in control of the race until she clipped the ninth hurdle. She kept her balance, but lost about a tenth of a second, which sent her from first to seventh. American Dawn Harper won the gold, and in a reversal of what happened four years ago, Lolo's stumble let Priscilla Lopes-Schliep win Canada's first track medal since 1996.
Another American favorite failed down the stretch as well, when Sonya Richards ran out of gas in the final 100 meters of the women's 400 and finished third. Christine Ohuruogu, who won an appeal after being banned for life for repeatedly missing doping tests, won the gold for Britain.
Some of the day's biggest drama came 500 miles away from Beijing, on the Yellow Sea off Qingdao. In the final women's Laser Radial sailing race, American Anna Tunnicliffe was in ninth place out of 10 boats at the midway point of the race. That would have cost her the gold medal, and might have even cost her the silver.
But she tacked way to the left, the wind shifted a little, and she sailed past five boats in about 100 yards. At the last second, she dove for the marker buoy, and just cut in front of the Chinese boat in time to make the turn in third. She passed another boat on the final, downwind leg and finished the race in second. That gave her enough points to clinch gold.
The most emotional winner had to be Germany's massive Matthais Steiner, who won super-heavyweight weightlifting by lifting 569 pounds over his head. After the lift, he fell to the ground in disbelief, then jumped around like a happy child. During the medal ceremony, he held a picture of his wife, who was killed in a car accident in 2007.
Tunnicliffe, Harper and wrestler Henry Cejudo helped the United States move their lead to 22 points in the overall standings. The British, who finished 8th in Athens, are now in third thanks to their domination of cycling.
RealSports Medal Standings
1) United States 24-19-26=203
2) China 25-14-14=181
3) Great Britain 15-8-5=104
4) Australia 11-10-12=97
5) Russia 10-11-14=97
6) South Korea 8-9-5=72
7) France 4-10-13=63
Germany 8-5-6=61
9) Japan 8-4-8=60
10) Italy 6-6-7=55