source:
By Jeremy Wilson, Olympic Stadium
London 2012 Olympics: Grenada’s Kirani James wins men’s 400 metres final to end USA’s dominance in the event
This might not go down in the annals of athletics history among the highest quality Olympic 400 metres competitions but, for those with a thirst for trivia, there will have been considerable satisfaction.
Not only did we witness the first Olympic appearance of an amputee in Oscar Pistorius but also an end to the United States’s streak of seven consecutive men’s 400m gold medals.
Indeed, ignoring their Olympic boycott in 1980, Monday night was also the first 400m final for 92 years that did not result in a medal of any sort for the US. Add in the extraordinary sight of identical twins – Belgium’s Borlee brothers – both appearing in an Olympic athletics final and there were enough sub-plots to fill an Agatha Christie thriller.
What really counted, though, was the outstanding performance of Kirani James who, in adding an Olympic title to the World Championships title he won last year, joins the likes of Michael Johnson on the elite list of men’s 400m runners.
Read more here:
Comments are closed.