Translated material
Swift Islander
Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt broke the world record in the most prestigious discipline
Over the three days of athletics competitions that began on Friday, a dozen sets of awards were played out in the Beijing Olympics program. The Russians have already won four medals. The victorious initiative was made by walker Valery Borchin, who won the 20-kilometer distance; yesterday Gulnara Samitova-Galkina finished first in the steeplechase (3000 m with obstacles), setting a world record. In the same race, Ekaterina Volkova became third, and Tatyana Lebedeva showed the second result in the long jump, losing 7 cm to the representative of Cameroon, Francoise Mbango-Etone.Despite the victories of our athletes, the main, significant event of the first days of the athletics tournament should be recognized as the Saturday world record of the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who renewed the highest achievement in the 100-meter dash - 9.69 seconds.
“At the moment when he accelerates and takes off, we on earth are just reaching the finish line,” these are the words of the Olympic bronze medalist in the 100 m race, American Walter Dix, said at a press conference addressed to 21-year-old Bolt, dear are standing. The Americans seem to have recognized that the royal throne in the most prestigious athletics discipline today does not belong to them. But there were times! In the entire history of the Olympic Games, US sprinters have won 16 gold medals in the 100-meter dash, including in the previous two Games (for comparison, the second-placed British have only 3). In Beijing, the Americans abandoned their hopes for gold in the semifinals, in which their main favorite, two-time world champion Tyson Gay, reached the finish line only in fifth with a score of 10.05.
From that moment on, the broadcast director, who was responsible for the picture on the huge monitors installed in the stadium, did not ignore for a minute two powerful guys in yellow-green overalls, two representatives of Jamaica - ex-world record holder Asafa Powell and the “current” record holder Usain Bolt. There was probably not a single person knowledgeable about athletics in the stadium who doubted that these two, who won the semi-final races, would compete for Olympic gold.
Powell ultimately did not live up to expectations, again taking fifth place (9.93). There was no intrigue in the dispute for first place. But what a run Bolt was! Fantastic! Unseen before. Grinding all competitors into powder. And at the finish line, as a result, amazing numbers - 9.69. He immediately improved his own world record, set on May 31 of this year in New York, by three hundredths of a second. And this despite the fact that in the last meters of the run he defiantly slowed down. But still, he was ahead of his closest pursuers Richard Thompson from Trinidad and Tobago and the American Walter Dix (who, by the way, set personal records) by 20 and 22 hundredths of a second, respectively.
Bolt came to the press conference with such an imperturbable look, as if he wasn’t the one who broke the world record an hour ago - wearing rapper pants, a baseball cap with a visor on the back of his head, constantly chewing something in between answering questions. One of the journalists suggested that Usain could well have run out of 9.60 if he had run at full strength until the end.
“Maybe,” Bolt replied. “But I was absolutely not thinking about the world record. The main thing for me was to win an Olympic gold medal. I set the same goal for myself at a distance of 200 meters. And I will still have time for world records.”
Bolt, Powell and Gay will likely take to the track together again this Olympics. This will happen on August 22, when medals will be awarded in the 4x100 meter relay.
The final men's 100-meter race crowned the Saturday program of the athletics tournament, and it opened with a 20-kilometer race walk among men. Our country was represented in these competitions by two people - silver medalist of the 2006 European Championship Valery Borchin and world champion of '99, silver medalist of the Games of '96 Ilya Markov.
Our veteran, unfortunately, was not able to compete with the leaders, finishing in 17th place, but Borchin led the fight for medals from the first meters, although it, in fact, began at the 16th kilometer, when Valery managed to break away from the leading group . Atlanta Olympic champion, three-time world champion Jefferson Perez from Ecuador tried to catch his breakthrough, but it was only enough for two kilometers. The Russian went through the remaining two in splendid isolation. At the finish, the main contenders for gold were separated by 14 seconds, despite the fact that Perez showed his best result of the season.
This medal was the only one won by Russians at an athletics tournament in the first two days of competition. Yes, we, in general, did not plan anything else. Although appetite, as you know, comes with eating. Our very talented heptathlete Tatyana Chernova came almost close to the podium, but, unfortunately, she was knocked down by seventh place in the javelin throw (with a score of 48.37), which did not allow her to ultimately rise above fourth.
And the list of main disappointments, of course, was headed by the Olympic champion of Athens in discus throwing, Natalya Sadova, who, with a score of 58.11, failed to make it to the final through the qualifying competition. This is more than strange, considering that at the Russian qualifying championship Natalya threw the discus 65 meters, and in Beijing she was going to add at least 3 meters to this result, which she publicly stated to the Vremya Novostey correspondent.
I was also surprised by the reaction of our shot putter Pavel Sofin to the last, eighth place in the final. Why was he so happy when, after the end of the competition, a television camera came close to him? The fact that out of the six final attempts he failed five? Or the one that reached the final? Why then was it necessary to compete in the finals at all, if you consider just getting there to be your ceiling?