USA Sinking, drop by drop

Wariner had not lost a major championship race since he won the 400 at the 2004 Athens Games. But at the games, he ran out of steam when it counted and was beaten on the final straightaway by compatriot LaShawn Merritt. Without heart, he even stopped trying over the final metres.

“I didn’t have anything left. I don’t know what to say,” Wariner said.

Only one conclusion was left for a team who had touted themselves as perhaps the best ever. “The whole games haven’t gone quite as planned,” said Lauryn Williams, who could not get her hand on the baton on the anchor leg.

As favourites go, only Cuban world record-holder Dayron Robles stuck to the plan, easily winning the 110 hurdles in the absence of defending champion Liu Xiang of China.

If Wariner pulled up short, at least Felix gave her best in the 200, even if she came up short. Campbell-Brown made up all ground in the first dozen metres and was clear coming into the final straight, capping the first sweep of the four 100 and 200s since the United States did it in 1988.

Unlike her freewheeling compatriot Usain Bolt, Campbell-Brown remained focussed up to the finish line, but the result was the same — another gold way ahead of the struggling Americans.

“Bolt set it off. After that, I just think the Jamaican camp went crazy,” said Kerron Stewart, who finished third to give Jamaica another medal.

In all sprint events, it is Jamaica 4, United States 0. Jamaica can still win the two relays, but the United States will stay stuck at zero for sure.

Slippery in rain

Within a half hour, the men’s and women’s teams both dropped the batons on the wet track at the Bird’s Nest in heats they would have easily qualified from. The anchor runners, Tyson Gay and Williams, blindly held their hands out, hoping to feel that elusive baton. But inexplicably, the third-leg runners could not get it there.

“I went to grab it and there was nothing,” said Gay, who came into the games as a double gold favourite but came away empty-handed. “It’s kind of the way it’s been happening to me this Olympics.

“I take full blame for it,” Gay added. “I kind of feel I let them down.”

Instead, Campbell-Brown came back to the track less than an hour after winning her 200 to anchor Jamaica to another easy victory for a place in Saturday’s final.

No sweat, despite running the fastest time in a decade to win her fifth Olympic medal overall with a time of 21.74 seconds. Much like the whole American sprint team, Felix had an awful start and never got close to the surging Jamaican. Instead, she had to work hard to finish in 21.93 and beat Kerron Stewart by .07 seconds. After silver in the 100, it was bronze for Stewart in the 200.

It was the same 1-2 finish as in Athens. “Deja vu, and not in a good way,” Felix said, choking back tears.

It wasn’t only the Jamaican sprinters that amazed the crowd. Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic sank to her knees in disbelief, clasping her hands to her head, when her last attempt in the javelin produced the fourth farthest throw in history and gave her gold.

She threw a European record of 71.42 metres to pass Maria Abakumova of Russia, who had already improved the continental record to 70.78.

Earlier, Olga Kaniskina walked to gold in a driving rain that hampered even the best of Olympic athletes. After a week of clear and warm conditions, a downpour over the Olympic Green cooled things down for the 20-kilometre walk and Kaniskina responded with an Olympic record.