As expected worldwide, Usain St. Leo Bolt led the charge with his “Midas” feet by mining gold in every run he made. Firstly, he clocked 9.63 in the 100 metres; 19.32 in the the 200 metrres; and inspired a 36.84 clocking in the 4×100 metres relay. He landed the 100 metres with a new Olympic record; and the 4×100 relay in a world record time. He seemed to have something up his sleeves when he slowed down at the end of the 200 metres run showing no desire to break his own Olympic record in that event.
Much was expected of Veronica who defeated Allyson Felix in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics to take gold in the 200 metres. However, after seeing how Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce defeated her in the Jamaica trials (both in the 100 and 200 metres) all hopes of seeing Veronica landing gold was remote in either sprint. It was certainly not the same situation when Yohan Blake defeated Usain in both the 100 and 200 metres in the Jamaican trials because everybody knew what he (Usain) was capable of doing on the big stage. As it turned out, it was the reverse in the Olympics when Yohan had to chase Bolt at the finishline in both events to label him the silver kid.
Individually, Veronica was only able to come home with a bronze, while Shelly-Ann grabbed a gold in the 100 metres (just as she did in Beijing) but was outraced by Felix in the 200 metres to settle for the silver.
The biggest disappointment was Melanie Walker who failed not only to repeat her 400 metres hurdle gold-medal feat in the Beijing Olympics, but was unable to even qualify for the final of the event. She, however, was not the only disappointment as a weeping Brigitte Foster-Hylton could only manage seventh in the first heat of the 100-metre hurdle after clipping a hurdle; Jamaica’s 400-metre champion, Jermaine Gonzalez, failed to make it to the semi-finals after placing 6th in his heat; and then pulled up on the third leg of the heat of the 4×400 metres relay to complete a double tragedy for Jamaica and himself; and Asafa Powell (whom much was expected of) too came up empty-handed after seeing Yohan, Bolt, Gatlin Justin and Tyson Gay all outpace him in the 100 metres. Immediately, he grabbed his thigh and hobbled to the finish line in 11.99 seconds. While this was not the first time some people think that Asafa was presenting an excuse for not coping with the big occasion, others think that this time he was sincere. Whether he was calling wolf (so to speak) or not, a term called “Asafa syndrome” has now being coined.
The pleasant surprise was a virtual unknown Warren Weir who got the bronze in the men’s 200 metres to enable Jamaica to make a clean sweep in that sprint event. A parallel surprise was the bronze too that Hansie Parchment landed in the 110 metres hurdles.
And so Jamaica, a little dot on the map, has proved once again that it is the sprint capital of the world.
America, the perennial champions, finished in pole position with 104 medals consisting of 46 gold, 29 silver and 29 bronze. China was next with 87 medals (38 gold, 27 silver and 22 bronze).
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