Women’s 100 final marred by protest as winner Sally Pearson of Australia disqualified, gold awarded to Nigeria’s Osayemi Oludamola.
The women’s 100m final erupted into controversy late on Thursday after the winner was judged to have false-started, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Thursday. Australian Sally Pearson, who won the race in 11.28sec, was stripped of her gold medal after organisers upheld a protest from England.
There were plenty of testy nerves in the final. England’s Laura Turner was shown the red card for a false start, but allowed to run under protest. Perhaps rattled by the turn of events, Turner came last in the race. Nigeria’s Osayemi Oludamola, silver medallist at the African championships, had powered into the lead until the halfway mark and seemed to have taken the race, but she slowed down as she approached the finish line. Pearson kept picking up pace and nosed ahead of Oludamola.
England officials protested that Pearson had false-started ahead of Turner earlier and should have been disqualified. Adding to all the confusion, Nigeria too lodged a second protest. Pearson’s victory would have made her only the second Australian woman since 1974 to win a 100m gold at the Games.
The men’s 100m was without controversy as Lerone Ephraime Clarke, the No.4 in Jamaica, shot to a comfortable victory in 10.12 sec. Nigerian Peter Emelezi and Emmanuel Callender of Trinidad & Tobago had the early lead, but Clarke kept gaining on them and had plenty to spare towards the end.
“I’m very happy to be here, I hope to come back and defend this medal,” said Clarke. “Now I will be training for the Olympics. We’re (Jamaicans) just not talented, we’re also driven. Probably that’s why we run so fast. Clarke, whose personal best is 9.99, was part of the team who ran the heats for the eventual gold-medal winning 4x100 team at the 2009 World Championships.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Sultana Frizell threw a new Games record of 68.57 metres to win the women’s hammer gold while Canada’s Dylan Armstrong won the men’s shot put with a Games record throw of 21.02.
In other events, Botswana’s Amantale Montsho was fastest into the women’s 400m final on Friday in 50.80, almost a second ahead of Guyana’s Tabitha Pompey.
Earlier, Viola Kibiwot was the quickest into the women’s 1,500m final as Kenya looks to reclaim its dominance of distance racing in Delhi after their men failed to win the 5,000m gold.
Kibiwot, fifth at the 2008 Olympics, won her heat ahead of England’s Helen Clitheroe and New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin and was five seconds faster than the woman who beat her to the
title in Beijing, fellow Kenyan Nancy Langat.
Langat ran in the second, slower heat, and won comfortably in 4:13.62 to keep plenty in reserve. “It was good first round, I just wanted to qualify for the final,” said Kibiwot.
Langat is one of the few Olympic champions in Delhi and was happy with her first outing on a track that needed last-minute
repairs after being damaged at Sunday’s spectacular opening ceremony.
Results
Men 100m
Gold: Lerone Clarke (Jam), Silver: Mark Lewis Francis (Eng), Bronze: Aaron Armstrong (T&T)
Men’s Shot put
Gold: Dylan Armstrong (Can), Silver: Dorian Amand Scott (Jam), Bronze: Dale Stevenson (Aus)
Women’s 100m
Gold: Osayemi Oludamola (Ngr), Silver: Natasha Mayers (SVG), Bronze: Katherine Endacott (Eng)
Women’s hammer throw
Gold: Sultana Frizell (Can), Silver: Carys Parry (Wal), Bronze: Zoe Derham (Eng)
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