Jamaica gold rush rolls on, U.S. woe

By Mitch Phillips

BEIJING (Reuters) - Jamaica continued their athletics gold rush when Veronica Campbell-Brown won the women's 200 meters on Thursday and though there was an American sweep in the men's 400m it was another bad day for the sport's superpower.

Dayron Robles claimed the 110 hurdles for Cuba with the Bird's Nest crowd still lamenting the absence of injured defending champion Liu Xiang on what was supposed to be his night of glory.

Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic took the women's javelin, Portugal's Nelson Evora won the triple jump and it was carnage in the sprint relay heats as the United States dropped the baton in the men's and women's events.

They were not alone, however, as defending champions Britain and Athens bronze medalists Nigeria also messed up in the men's heats, wiping out all three 2004 medalists.

Needless to say, both Jamaican teams romped home, clearing the way for yet more gold on Friday when double sprint champion Usain Bolt should be in the team for the final.

"The stick (baton) had a mind of its own," said American Lauryn Williams.

Campbell-Brown anchored the Jamaican relay quartet only 90 minutes after winning the 200m to make it 4-0 to Jamaica in the sprint gold medal competition against the U.S., the first time the Americans have failed to win one in a non-boycotted Games since 1976.

The race was still quite tight coming off the bend but Campbell-Brown took charge in the home straight to win in a career best 21.74 seconds.

American Allyson Felix took silver for the second successive Olympics and Jamaica's Kerron Stewart, who shared silver in the 100, claimed bronze.

"We have so many sprinters in Jamaica, it's crazy," said Stewart. "We're taking over every event bit by bit. This has been the Jamaican Olympics."

Asked about the gulf in performances between the two rivals, Lauryn Williams said: "They brought their A-game. I don't know where we left ours."

The American one-lap specialists may choose to disagree, as they followed a clean sweep in the men's 400 hurdles by filling the podium in the flat version.

However, the 1-2 was not in the order most people were predicting as LaShawn Merritt found something extra to win in a personal best 43.75 seconds.

BIGGEST MARGIN

Jeremy Wariner, the double world champion, gave up when he knew gold was out of his grasp, handing his compatriot the biggest winning margin, 0.99 seconds, since 1896.