Australian skateboarder shines at Olympics as US relay team crash out
TOKYO: Australian teen Keegan Palmer flew to a stunning skateboarding gold medal on Thursday as the USA suffered track disappointment with a major flop in the 4x100 metres relay heats.
American shot pu er Ryan Crouser hurled an Olympicrecord 23.30 metres to retain his title, while Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo leapt 17.98m to win the men’s triple jump.
Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment upset America’s Grant Holloway to win the men’s 110m hurdles in 13.04sec, charging through the closing stages as the world champion faltered.
“It’s unbelievable that I caught that guy (Holloway),” said Parchment, 31.
“My coach reminded me to run through the line – and that’s what I did.”
“I don’t think a lot of people expected me to win,” added the Jamaican.
But there was a bigger disappointment for Team USA when their relay team, the world champions and pre-Games favourites, finished sixth in their heat to miss the final.
Sprint legend Carl Lewis called it a “total embarrassment” as Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker and Cravon Gillespie became the first US quartet to fail to make the final from a completed heat.
“We just didn’t get the job done today,” said Kerley. “No excuses.”
At the Ariake Urban Sports Park, 18-year-old Palmer wrapped up the Olympics’ inaugural skateboarding programme with a brilliant gold medal in the men’s park event.
Uncorking a kickflip 540 he had saved for the occasion, the Aussie scored a massive 94.04 points in his first run before be ering his score to 95.83, way ahead of silver medallist Pedro Barros’s 86.14 and American Cory Juneau, who claimed bronze with 84.13.
The first of Thursday’s 27 gold medals came in marathon swimming, when Germany’s Florian Wellbrock won the men’s title in a time of 1hr 48min 33.7sec.
Wellbrock and third-placed Gregorio Paltrinieri – who was struck by glandular fever before the Games – had also medalled in the pool, with 1500m bronze and 800m silver respectively.
Quan Hongchan, 14, produced three maximum scores to win the women’s 10m platform and secure China’s sixth gold medal out seven diving events so far.
And India, a one-time hockey superpower, celebrated their first medal in the sport in 41 years when their men’s team beat Germany 5-4 to win bronze.
The men’s 20km race was taking place in Sapporo, hundreds of miles (kilometres) north of Tokyo a er it was moved to avoid the capital’s punishing summer heat.
However, Sapporo has been ba ling a heatwave of its own with temperatures climbing to 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday. — AFP