Americans Richards, Jones blow leads on track

BEIJING - It was theirs to lose, and they did.

Sanya Richards led in the stretch but was outrun to the finish in the 400 meters, Lolo Jones clipped the ninth of 10 barriers in the 100-meter hurdles Tuesday night — and just like that, two of America’s top runners let Olympic gold medals slip away.

Richards still won bronze, but a woman who has dominated the distance — save for the biggest races — looked crushed during the medals ceremony. Afterward, she was sitting in a hallway beneath the Bird’s Nest stands, crying into her cell phone.

In the next race, Jones was in the lead and seemed to be pulling away when she hooked her right foot on the ninth hurdle and broke her stride, falling from first to seventh. The late blunder opened the door for teammate Dawn Harper to win the U.S. track team’s third gold medal of the games.

“It was like racing a car at max velocity. When you hit a curve, you either maintain control or you crash and burn,” Jones said. “Today, I crashed and burned. I’m shocked and sad. But I’m happy for the girls.”

Earlier, Usain Bolt of Jamaica overtook defending Olympic champion Shawn Crawford in the 200-meter semifinals, setting up his chance Wednesday night for the first Olympic 100-200 double since Carl Lewis did it in 1984.

Andrey Silnov of Russia won the men’s high jump — but only got into the games based on a late decision by Russian track and field officials after he did not qualify through Olympic trials.

Other gold medals awarded Tuesday went to 1,500-meter runner of Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain and discus thrower Gerd Kanter of Estonia, who celebrated by running the 85-meter dash on the 100-meter course in about 15-flat, his country’s flag held aloft.

There were no big surprises in qualifying.

Bolt, Crawford and Wallace Spearmon all made it easily into the finals of the 200, where Bolt will be chasing Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old record of 19.32 seconds and everyone else will be chasing Bolt.

Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt (men’s 400) and David Oliver and Dayron Robles (men’s 110 hurdles) all also advanced easily through their qualifying rounds. Those hurdles were supposed to be a highlight of these games, but lost some luster when China’s Liu Xiang, a national celebrity and the defending Olympic champion, pulled out of qualifying with an injury.

Gymnastics

Shawn Johnson made a habit of collecting silver at the Beijing Games, and she never stopped smiling. But it wasn’t exactly what she came to China for. She ended her runner-up streak with a beam routine that blew away the field, including all-around champ Nastia Liukin, behind whom Johnson got one of her three silvers.

“It’s crazy,” the 16-year-old Johnson said. “I remember seeing Nastia have hers from the all-around and it is so pretty. Silver is really pretty, too.

“It’s the best feeling ever.”

Johnson won the gold despite a headache earlier in the day.

“This is what we expected to see,” her coach Liang Chow said. “The thing I really am pleased with is she was a little under the weather and she still was able to do a wonderful routine.”

Wonderful also describes the Chinese men throughout these Olympics. They swept the two events Tuesday, with Zou Kai winning high bar and Li Xaiopeng winning parallel bars. In all, China took all but one men’s event, the vault — in which there was no Chinese finalist.

China’s men won the team title, Yang Wei took the all-around, and the Chinese also took the still rings, pommel horse and floor exercise.

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