August 24, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 21, 1429

BEIJING, Aug 23: Kenenisa Bekele became the first man to complete the Olympic long-distance double for 28 years when he romped to the 5,000 metres title on the final evening of athletics competition at the Bird’s Nest Stadium on Saturday.

There was more east African success on the track when Kenyan Wilfred Bungei took gold in the men’s 800 metres and compatriot Nancy Jebet Langat claimed the women’s 1,500m.

Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen retained his javelin crown but there was a shock in the high jump were Blanka Vlasic, unbeaten all season, lost out to Belgium’s Tia Hellebaut.

The United States, who suffered double disaster in the sprint relay heats, roared back in the 4x400 with a thrilling win in the women’s race and dominant victory in the men’s, the traditional finale of the last night session.

Bekele, who retained his 10,000 title on Sunday, wanted to go one better than his silver of four years ago and, as world record holder, started hot favourite to emulate the double of his compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba in the women’s long-distance events.

The race followed a predictable pattern as Bekele was given a ride by brother Tariku and the third Ethiopian, Abreham Cherkos.

The rest of the field, bar the Kenyans, dropped back before Bekele took off at the bell to win comfortably.

His time of 12 minutes 57.82 seconds was an Olympic record and made him the first man to do the double since compatriot Miruts Yifter.

There were two more medals for Kenya as Eliud Kipchoge took silver and Edwin Cheruiyot Soi the bronze.

Bungei finally claimed the major title his talent has promised for years when he delivered a dominant display in the 800.

The race was there for the taking after several leading contenders failed to get past the semi-finals and the 28-year-old Kenyan, still the fifth-fastest man ever to run two laps, drove home from the bell to win in 1:44.65 seconds.

Ismail Ahmed Ismail of Sudan took silver with another Kenyan, world champion Alfred Kirwa Yego, finishing strongly for bronze.

Langat’s win was much more of a surprise as world champion and favourite Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain led through the bell.

However, sickness sapped her strength and Langat tore past with 250 to go and won easily in 4:00.23. Ukraine took both minor medals through Iryna Lishchynska and Nataliya Tobias.

Vlasic, unbeaten in any competition since June 2007, was short odds to add Olympic gold to her world title but she needed two attempts to clear 2.05 metres which Hellebaut cleared first time to win on countback after both failed at 2.07.

Thorkildsen threw an Olympic record 90.57 metres with his fifth effort to beat Latvia’s Ainars Kovals and world champion Tero Pitkamaki, who picked up Finland’s first athletics medal since the Sydney Games with the bronze.

After their sprint relay failures, where both teams dropped the baton, the US had a point to prove and they looked like they meant business when the women came out in red kit instead of the blue the country’s athletes have worn all Games.

“I think it gave us a new attitude to come out here and win,” said final-leg runner Sanya Richards.

“I knew I had to pull out a supreme effort to help our team win and I’m happy we were able to do that. I came to the Olympics to win a gold medal and when I saw it was going to happen I was really, really excited,” she added while clenching her fist in the air.

There was a red shirt leading until the last 25 metres of the final leg, but it was worn by Russian Anastasia Kapachinskaya.

However, Richards, who missed out on her expected gold in the individual race, completed a marvellous last leg to snatch gold in 3:18.54, the fastest time for 15 years. Jamaica took bronze.

LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner and David Neville, the three medallists in the individual 400, and Angelo Taylor, the 400m hurdles champion, were always going to be a formidable quartet in the men’s race and they duly delivered ahead of Bahamas and Russia.

The two victories enabled the US to overtake Jamaica and Russia at the top of the athletics medals tables with seven golds and just the men’s marathon to come on Sunday.

Kenya will be looking for gold in an event they have never won, with Martin Lel, Sammy Wanjiru and Luke Kibet well-placed to end the drought.

Meanwhile, China’s Zhou Luxin went from hero to zero when he fluffed his last dive to prevent China becoming the first nation since 1952 to win every Olympic diving gold medal.

The world No 2 had a healthy lead over Australia’s Matthew Mitcham going into the final dive in the men’s 10m platform but scored just 74.80 points.

Mitcham provided the perfect reply, earning 112.10 to pip Zhou at the post and claim gold by just just four points on a total of 537.95.

The home nation had already won seven out of seven gold off the boards and Zhou shouldered the responsibility of making it eight.

Russia’s Gleb Galperin took bronze.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom with the country’s table tennis stars completing a clean sweep of all gold in their sport.

On the penultimate day of the Games, Ma Lin beat team-mate Wang Hao in the men’s singles final 11-9, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9.

It ensured China won every medal at stake for the first time since table tennis was introduced at the 1988 Olympics.

China’s Wang Liqin took bronze, defeating Swedish veteran Jorgen Persson 13-11, 11-2, 11-5, 11-9.

China’s women’s volleyballers, meanwhile, added a bronze by beating Cuba three sets to one (25-16, 21-25, 25-13, 25-20) in the play-off match.—Agencies