By Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
Jamaica's Veronica Campbell (centre) crosses the finish line to win the women's 200 metres final yesterday. Campbell won the gold medal in a time of 22.05 seconds. ahead of Allyson Felix of the U.S. (second right) andDebbie Ferguson of the Bahamas (not pictured). Other athletes are (from right) Bulgaria's Ivet Lalova, Felix, Campbell, Britain's Abiodun Oyepitan, Jamaica's Aleen Bailey and Muna Lee of the U.S. - Reuters
ATHENS, Greece:
ASAFA POWELL put the disappointment of a fifth place finish in the men's 100 metres final behind him to become the first Jamaican male since Donald Quarrie in 1976 to reach both the 100m and 200m finals at the Olympics.
Last night at the Olympic Stadium, Powell placed fourth in semi-final two of the 200m in 20.56 behind 100m gold medallist Justin Gatlin who clocked 20.35. Portugal's Francis Obikwelu was second in 20.36 and Stephane Buckland of Mauritius, third in 20.37.
Quarrie was second in the 100m at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and came back to win gold in the 200 metres.
The first semi-final went to the gold medal favourite, American Shawn Crawford, in 20.05. Jamaica's Chris Williams missed out in this heat. He was sixth in 20.80 and did not advance. The final is at 10.50 tonight in Athens (2:50 p.m. Ja time).
Powell ran a powerful first 150 metres out of lane five but Gatlin and Obikwelu proved stronger in the rush to the line. Williams, drawn on the outside in lane seven, carried the field into the straight but ran out of steam.
All three high hurdlers are in today's semi-finals as the contingent here continues to do well overall.
Leading the way was national champion Maurice Wignall who was third in the fourth of four quarter-final heats. Wignall clocked 13.39 behind Inocencio Mateus of Brazil, winner of the heat in a personal best 13.33.
THIRD IN HEAT
Richard Phillips (13.44) was third in heat two won by Stanislavs Olijars of Latvia in 13.26. Chris Pinnock (13.47) advanced as one of the four fastest losers after placing fourth in heat three won by China's Xiang Liu also in 13.26.
Allen Johnson, the 1996 Olympic champion and the fourth place finisher in Sydney four years ago, fell midway in heat two and did not finish. Frenchman Ladji Doucoure, a really silky smooth 21-year-old hurdler, had the best time of the round, 13.23, in winning heat one.
Wignall said he was taking it one step at a time in his event.
"My race was as planned. I just wanted to do enough to get to the next round. In the next round it's same thing just do as much to get to the final," he said.
Phillips, a student of George Mason University in the United States, said he was a bit disappointed with his time.
"I had a personal best yesterday (Tuesday) and I ran fairly easy. Maybe the hitches at the start got to me," Phillips said.
Phillips said he had no idea that Johnson had fallen in his race and only saw it on the replay.
"I was not distracted. I had a hitch at about hurdle six as I swung over the top instead of attacking it and I will work on this in the next round and hopefully I can better my time again," Phillips said.
The men's 110m hurdles final is set for tomorrow.
Today 400m hurdler Danny McFarlane will try to maintain his consistent run by getting a medal in the final set for 10.30 p.m. here. McFarlane, who is the only Jamaican to reach both the 400m and 400m hurdles finals at the Olympics, ran a personal best 48.00 in the semi-finals and is in good enough form to test gold medal favourite Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic. Sanchez goes into the final with the fastest time, 47.93. He has a personal best of 47.57.
