3rd time lucky as Felix wins women’s 200m gold

America’s Allyson Felix made it third time lucky to win the Olympic 200m crown yesterday and deny Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce a sprint double. Felix, a silver medallist at the 2004 and 2008 Games over the distance, powered to victory in 21.88sec to thwart Fraser-Pryce’s hopes of adding the 200m title to her newly acquired 100m crown. “Finally, it has been a long time coming,” a delighted Felix said. “I’ve waited so long for this moment and I am just overjoyed. “There are so many people I lover here tonight and I am just overjoyed to share it with them,” the 26-year-old from Los Angeles added. Fraser-Pryce took silver in 22.09sec with Carmelita Jeter of the United States winning bronze in 22.14sec. Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown—chasing a historic third consecutive Olympic 200m gold after pipping Felix at the two previous games—was fourth in a time of 22.38sec. Felix looked smooth throughout, coming off the bend with a significant lead and holding her nerve in the home stretch to win a long-overdue first gold. Felix is a three-time world champion over 200m but could only manage bronze at last year’s world championships in Daegu, South Korea. But she came into the Olympics in top form having clocked the fastest time in the world this year, running 21.69 seconds at the US Olympic trials. America’s Sanya Richards-Ross, aiming to complete a rare 200m-400m double in London after winning the 400m earlier in the Games, finished fifth in 22.39sec. Felix’s victory is America’s first gold in the event since 1992, when Gwen Torrence won in Barcelona and is a rare recent success in the battle against sprinting powerhouse Jamaica. Russia’s Natalya Antyukh won the women’s 400 metres hurdles Olympic title. The 31-year-old - Olympic bronze medallist in the flat 400 metres in 2004 - won in a personal best of 52.70sec ahead of American world champion Lashinda Demus (52.77) with Czech Zuzana Hejnova taking bronze in 53.38sec. Antyukh is only the second Russian in history to win the event after Irina Privalova in Sydney in 2000. Japan’s Kaori Icho won her third consecutive gold medal in the women’s 63-kilogramme freestyle wrestling class yesterday, while compatriot Hitomi Obara won in the 48-kilogramme class. Icho, who also has seven world championship titles to her name, overcame China’s Jing Ruixue to win 3-0 at London’s ExCeL arena. She also won in Beijing and Athens, the first time women’s wrestling featured on the Olympic programme. Mongolia’s Soronzonbold Battsetseg and Russia’s Lubov Volosova took bronze medals. Earlier Obara won her first Olympic medal when she beat Mariya Stadnik in the gold medal match in the women’s 48-kilogramme wrestling class. A capacity crowd in London’s ExCel arena saw Stadnik from Azerbaijan, who won bronze in Beijing, take an early lead, but the eight-time world champion from Japan fought back strongly to win on points. In the first bronze medal match, Canadian Carol Huynh, who won the gold in Beijing, denied Senegalese wrestler Isabelle Sambou a first-ever wrestling medal for Africa. In the second bronze medal bout, American Clarissa Chun beat Iryna Merleni, who won gold in the division in Athens and followed that up with bronze in Beijing. from gulf times.