OLYMPICS /
Other Teams
Walker, sprinter, hurdler, champ
China Daily/The Olympian
Updated: 2008-08-21 10:50
Jamaica's Melaine Walker broke the Olympic record as she won gold in the women's 400m hurdles yesterday.
Walker won in 52.64 sec, with Sheena Tosta of the United States taking silver in 53.70 and Tasha Danvers of Britain third in 53.84.
Walker's win came minutes after her countryman Usain Bolt completed a sprint double by winning the men's 200m in world-record time.
Walker clears another hurdle on her way to gold. [Agencies] |
Walker was delighted with her performance.
"I wanted to be victorious," she told BBC Sport. "Jamaica is so small. Everybody should be happy and I'm happy too."
Walker was in a battle with American Tosta for the first part of the race before breaking clear to cross the line well ahead of the field.
Walker was certainly the strongest runner on the day. Her medal was Jamaica's second Olympic gold medal in the event: Deon Hemmings had won the event in 1996.
Walker would also be happy with her execution of her pre-race plan: "First stride out, relax, hurdle right, kick from the sixth home."
If at all she had any regrets, it would be at missing the world record by just 0.3 seconds. "I'll tell you the truth. I'm trying to get the world record" she had said after the semifinals on Monday, in which she'd clocked the second-fastest time behind Tosta.
Tosta hung on to silver from the fast-finishing Danvers, 30, who took an unexpected third after a poor season. "It has been the worst and best year of my life," Danvers told BBC Sport.
The London athlete set a personal best time in the final, but revealed that any thoughts of a medal were far from her mind at the start of the year.
The hurdles final was wide open with world record-holder Yulia Pechonkina skipping the Olympics because of a heart problem, two-time world champion Jana Rawlinson out injured and reigning Olympic champion Fani Halkia expelled after testing positive for a steroid.
Agencies
