OLYMPICS / Other Teams

Bolt after Olympic golden double

Agencies
Updated: 2008-08-19 15:37

 

BEIJING - With only 11 gold medals to be presented Wednesday at the Beijing Olympics  -- the fewest since the first day of competition --and Usain Bolt in line to collect one of them, it's a distinct case of quality over quantity.

Jamaica's Usain Bolt celebrates winning the men's second round 200m heat 1 at the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 18, 2008. [Agencies] 


The Jamaican sprinter will try to add the 200-meter gold medal to his world-record performance in the 100, where he coasted over the final meters en route to a 9.69-second time.

The 200, however, is his favorite event.

If he wins both the 100 and 200 at the Bird's Nest, he'd be the first Olympic athlete since Carl Lewis in 1984 to achieve the feat.

And Michael Johnson's 12-year-old world record of 19.32 could fall in the process.

"I'm just going out there all the time to do my thing and show the world I'm probably the best," Bolt said.

Bolt was second in his opening-round heat of the 200 on Monday, then easily won his quarterfinal heat at night, jogging down the stretch and still beating reigning champion Shawn Crawford of the United States by several strides.

The women's 400 hurdles final and hammer throw will also be held Wednesday.

Elsewhere, swimmers are back in the water, but not Michael Phelps, who is still in Beijing doing promotional work after his record eight gold medals.

The women's 10-kilometer open water race, being held for the first time at the Olympics, will have Larisa Ilchenko of Russia as its overwhelming favorite.

Ilchenko is the defending world champion over the distance and has won the 5K world title five times in a row.

With no natural "open water" near Beijing, the race will be held over laps of the rowing venue at Shunyi, about 35 kilometers north of the city.

Natalie du Toit of South Africa, who wears a prosthetic left leg, will by vying for a medal.

It is the first time marathon swimming will be in the Olalf her left leg in a motorbike accident seven years ago. She was an emerging star in the pool when she swam at the 1998 Commonwealth Games as a 14-year-old.

The duet free route in synchronized swimming is also scheduled, with a pair of Russian Anastasias -- Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova -- also expected to follow up their 2004 Olympic and 2007 world championship titles with another gold medal.

Two windsurfing gold medals will be presented at the sailing venue in Qingdao, and two each in wrestling and taekwondo.

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