DPA/London


Veteran Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic won 400 metres hurdles gold on Monday in the same time as in his first success in 2004, while world champion Dai Greene missed the podium in front of a British home crowd at the London Olympics.
Sanchez, 34, led into the home stretch and cruised home in 47.63 seconds as at Athens 2004. He is also a two-times world champion. Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus took shot put gold at last, while in the men’s 400m, Kirani James lived up to his top billing when he stormed to 400 metres gold yesterday in what was the first Olympic medal for the Caribbean island of Grenada.
The world champion was never troubled en route his first first sub-44-seconds time of 43.94 seconds in the first ever Olympic 400m final without a runner from the United States.
Fellow-teenager Luguelin Santos of the Domincan Republic took silver in 44.46 and Trinidad and Tobago’s Lalonde Gordon grabbed bronze in 44.52 seconds.
Yuliya Zaripova of Russia stormed to Olympic 3,000 metres steeplechase gold at the London Games with the third best time in race history. Zaripova pulled away from her rivals on the final lap for victory in 9 minutes 6.72 seconds a year after also winning the world title in the event. Habiba Ghribi got silver for Tunisia in a national record 9:08.37 and Sofia Assefa took bronze for Ethiopia in 9:09:84.
The 2008 Olympic champion and world record holder Gulnara Galkina retired during the race. With all major rivals behind him, Sanchez ran hard from the outset in lane seven and got home safely on the home stretch with the personal season-best 47.63.
Michael Tinsley of the United States got silver in 47.91 and Javier Culson of Puerto Rico took bronze in 48.10. The 2011 world champion Greene managed only fourth after a slow start into the race and Angelo Taylor, the Olympic champion from 2000 and 2008, placed fifth.
Ostapchuk, 31, had a winning put of 21.36m in her third attempt and two further puts beyond 21m on a cool evening with occasional drizzle in the packed Olympic Stadium. The 2005 world champion had come fourth in 2004 and got bronze in 2008.
World champion and 2008 gold medallist Valerie Adams of New Zealand had to make do with silver with 20.70m and the bronze medal went to Gong Lijao of China with 20.20m.
American Jennifer Suhr foiled Russian Yelena Isinbayeva’s bid for a historic hat-trick of women’s pole vault titles by claiming a nip-and-tuck Olympic competition in rainy conditions yesterday.
Suhr eventually claimed gold after registering a best of 4.75 metres having come into the competition at 4.55m.
Cuban Yarisley Silva claimed silver with 4.75m, a failed effort at her opening height of 4.45m see her cede the podium-topping spot on countback.
Defending two-time Olympic champion Isinbayeva, also the world record holder with a massive 5.06m set in 2009, took bronze  with a best of 4.70m.
The Russian had sailed over 4.65m to settle her nerves. She passed at 4.55m after botching her first effort, and watched on as Silva and then German Silke Spiegelburg both cleared 4.65m at the first time of asking, while Suhr confidently opted out and another German, Martina Strutz, also went straight to 4.70m after one fail 5cm lower. The silver medallist in Beijing four years ago, Suhr then cleared 4.70m with aplomb while Spiegelburg brought the bar crashing down on her first effort.
Isinbayeva and Silva came hurtling down the runway to clear the height convincingly, but Strutz failed and went out. Speigelburg had no choice but to up the ante and opted to sit out 4.70m, as light rain started to fall, with the temperature around 17 degrees Celsius (64F).
Isinbayeva sat on the sidelines, head covered and focused, but it made no difference as the quartet left in competition all fluffed their first attempts at 4.75m.
Suhr cleared the height at the second time of asking, with only two women - Isinbayeva and Suhr herself having made the height at the Olympics before, in 2008.
Silva followed suit to match the Cuban national record but Spiegelburg crashed out to just miss a podium placing. Isinbayeva then failed but in one last shot of gamesmanship went up to 4.80m.
The 30-year-old got nowhere near, leaving Suhr and Silva to battle it out for gold, now in driving rain that hampered their grips on the bar and made it difficult for any traction on a slick track.
Both Suhr and Silva failed three times at 4.80m, but Silva’s previous indiscretion at 4.45m counted, and the US team was left to herald an unexpected gold.
The 400m gold medallist Sanya Richards-Ross of the United States started the bid for a track double by leading the 200m heats in 22.48 seconds, with the 2004 and 2008 Olympic champion Veronica Campbell- Brown and fellow Jamaican two-times 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce also through.
Olympic 400m hurdles champion Melanie Walker went out in the semi-finals but world champion Lashinda Demus of the US qualified for the final.
In notable morning session preliminaries, world champion and world record holder David Rudisha of Kenya did not break a sweat when he ran into the 800 metres semi-finals. World champion Sally Pearson breezed into the 100m hurdles semis along with American Olympic champion Dawn Harper while Briton Jessica Ennis withdrew in the wake of her heptathlon gold yesterday.