Usain Bolt won another Olympic gold medal in world record time Friday at the Beijing Games, this time with some company. The 21-year-old Jamaican sprinter led his country's 4x100m relay team to a first-place finish at the Bird's Nest - by about 20 lengths over second-place Trinidad and Tobago. Bolt and Co. did it in a time of 37.10 seconds, improving on the 37.40 record set by the United States in 1992 and repeated in 1993. The win added to Bolt's earlier individual sprint golds in world-record times over 100 and 200 meters, the first time that's been achieved in Olympic history. “Go Asafa!” Bolt shouted after handing the baton to Asafa Powell. He kept running toward the finish line. Nesta Carter and Michael Frater were other members of the Jamaican team. Trinidad and Tobago finished in 38.06 for silver. Japan took the bronze in 38.15. The loss of the world record made the great American sprint debacle complete, failing to get a single gold in six events. The Jamaican women's team, however, messed up the second exchange in their relay. Featuring two-time Olympic 200 champion Veronica Campbell-Brown and led off by 100 champion Shelly-Ann Fraser, Jamaica was aiming for a fifth straight sprint gold medal in Beijing. Russia (Evgeniya Polyakova, Aleksandra Fedoriva, Yulia Gushchina and anchor Yuliya Chermoshanskaya) won in 42.31 seconds, with world championship bronze medalist Belgium getting silver and Nigeria picking up bronze. Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won the 5,000m to complete an Olympic distance double. Dibaba, the world record holder, won the race in 15:41.40, her second gold of the Beijing Games after her triumph in the 10,000m. The Ethiopian claimed an unprecedented long-distance double, something Ethiopian greats like Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele have been unable to do. Her great rival and compatriot Meseret Defar was pushed into third by Ethiopian-born Elvan Abeylegesse, who runs for Turkey. She also won silver in the 10,000m behind Dibaba. Crossing the line, Dibaba timidly clenched her fists, briefly raised her arms in triumph and quickly turned around to console her rivals. Maurren Higa Maggi earned Brazil a gold medal in the women's long jump. The world indoor silver medalist led from the first round at 7.04 meters and it proved enough for gold. World and defending Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia, who took silver in the triple jump, got another silver, finishing only one centimeter behind the Brazilian on her final attempt. Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria took bronze. Carolina Kluft, the three-time world champion and 2004 Athens Olympics heptathlon champion, finished ninth. Unlike Kluft, Bryan Clay is sticking with the multi-event test of power and speed which traditionally is called the battle to become “the world's greatest athlete.” The 2004 Olympic silver medalist and 2005 world champion won with 8,791 points. Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus took silver with 8,551 points, and Leonel Suarez of Cuba was third with 8,527. Alex Schwazer of Italy won the longest event on the program, the 50-km walk. With a break 10km from the finish, he pulled away from the leading group and held on to beat Jared Tallent of Australia, who won bronze in the 20K. Denis Nizhegorodov of Russia took bronze. Schwazer finished in 3:37:09, slicing 1:20 off the 20-year-old Olympic record. The men's pole vault saw Australian Steve Hooker win gold with an Olympic record of 5.96m ahead of Russian Evgeny Lukyanenko (5.85m) and Ukraine's Denys Yurchenko (5.70m). Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser of the United States won the men's beach volleyball gold medal, beating Fabio and Marcio of Brazil 23-21, 17-21, 15-4. Dalhausser blocked four straight Brazilian shots in the deciding set to turn it into a rout. The American win came a day after Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor fought driving rain to win their second straight gold for the US women. World champion Maris Strombergs of Latvia won the gold medal in men's BMX cycling, holding off Americans Mike Day and Donny Robinson for the title. Anne-Caroline Chausson of France took gold in the women's race. Six canoe and kayak finals were held, with Attila Vajda of Hungary winning the men's 1,000m canoe single, Tim Brabants of Britain getting gold in 1,000m kayak and Germany, made up of Nicole Reinhardt, Fanny Fischer, Katrin Wagner-Augustin and Conny Wassmuth, winning the women's 500m kayak four. Martin Hollstein and Andreas Ihle of Germany won gold in the men's 1,000m kayak double, brothers Andrei and Aliaksandr Bahdanovich of Belarus the men's 1,000m canoe and another Belarussian crew - Raman Piatrushenka, Aliaksei Abalmasau, Artur Litvinchuk and Vadzim Makhneu - the 1,000m kayak four. The Netherlands defeated China 2-0 to win the gold medal in women's field hockey. Hwang Kyung-seon won South Korea's third gold medal in taekwondo while Hadi Saei of Iran captured the men's 80-kg class after an upset sent favorite Steven Lopez of the United States to a quarterfinal loss. Hwang won the women's 67-kg class. Zhang Yining of China defeated teammate Wang Nan to win the gold medal in women's singles table tennis. Earlier, the host country clinched all three medals when Guo Yue beat Li Jia Wei of Singapore for bronze. Lena Schoneborn of Germany won gold in the women's modern pentathlon. In men's football, Jo scored two goals and Diego added a third as Brazil beat Belgium 3-0 to win the bronze medal. Also, Lyudmila Blonska was stripped of her Olympic silver medal in the heptathlon for doping. The Ukrainian athlete was disqualified and kicked out of the Beijing Games by the International Olympic Committee after testing positive for a steroid after finishing second in the heptathlon. – AP __
