Teenager Kirani James powered to gold in the men’s 400m last night to win Grenada’s first Olympic medal of any colour and become the first non-American winner of the event since 1980.
James, 19, the reigning world champion, dominated the field, winning in 43.94sec. Luguelin Santos, also 19, of the Dominican Republic, took silver in 44.46sec while Trinidad and Tobago’s Lalonde Gordon took bronze.
The Grenadan made his move in the final 150m, coming off the bend with a clear lead and never looked like being caught.
His time was a new national record for the Caribbean island nation and he also became the first non-US athlete to dip under 44 seconds for the one-lap race.
The United States has been utterly dominant in the race since Victor Markin, representing the former Soviet Union, won the event in the boycott-blighted 1980 Moscow Olympics, where the US did not compete.
Last year James became the second youngest world gold medallist when he outdipped LaShawn Merritt of the United States.
James set world age-group records for the 400m when he was 13, 14 and 15, winning double 200-400m golds at the 2009 world youth championships, before being crowned world junior champion in the 400m a year later.
While Usain Bolt ran 45.35sec for the 400m as a 16-year-old, James timed 45.24 at the same age.
The world record holder in the event remains US great Michael Johnson, who timed 43.18sec in 1999, but many observers believe James has the potential to threaten that time.
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.
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.
Isinbayeva’s bronze meant she failed in her bid to become the first woman in history to win an individual athletics discipline three times at the Olympic Games (although Veronica Campbell-Brown will also have a chance to do this later in these Games in the women’s 200m).
The Russian, also a two-time world champion, is the only woman to have cleared five metres or better, which she has done indoors and outdoors on eight occasions.
She has broken the world record 28 times (13 indoor and 15 outdoor), culminating in her current world record of 5.06m set in Zurich three years ago, but her long years of dominating the event now seem truly over.
Sanchez grabs hurdles glory
Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic stormed to victory in the 400m hurdles final.
Sanchez won in a time of 47.63sec, taking a title he first collected at the 2004 Athens Games.
The 34-year-old, whose time was the same as the one he ran in Athens, beat home American Michael Tinsley, who ran a personal best of 47.91sec, while the pre-race favourite Javier Culson of Puerto Rico took bronze in 48.10sec.
Great Britain’s world champion Dai Greene finished fourth and two-time Olympic champion Angelo Taylor finished fifth in a high-quality race.
Russian Yuliya Zaripova won the women’s Olympic 3,000m steeplechase.
Zaripova timed a personal best of 9min 06.72sec to finish ahead of Tunisian Habiba Ghribi, who ran a new national record of 9:08.37, with Ethiopia’s Sofia Assefa taking bronze in 9:09.84.
Belarus’ Nadezhda Ostapchuk won the women’s Olympic shot put title with a throw of 21.36m to end the almost two-year unbeaten run of defending champion Valerie Adams of New Zealand.
The 31-year-old collected the only title missing from her collection ahead of Adams, who took silver with 20.70m.
Russia’s Yevgeniya Kolodko took bronze with a personal best of 20.48m.