(Adds sailing medals, closing ceremony details)
* Ethiopian Dibaba aims for track double in 5,000m
* Two doping cases surface, accusations fly
* Spice Girls to perform at closing ceremony
* Jamaica eyes relay sprint golds after Bolt heroics
By Kevin Liffey and Mike Collett-White
LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba
attempts a track double on Friday in the 5,000 metres to add to
the 10,000 Olympic crown she retained in thrilling fashion a
week ago in London, but two doping cases overshadowed another
action-packed day at the Games.
BMX riders provided high-speed thrills and spills over bumps
and around banked corners and Britain suffered sailing defeats
on the 14th day of competition, when fresh doping scandals
involving a French and Kenyan athlete emerged.
France’s 5,000 metres runner Hassan Hirt failed a test for
the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) prior to competing
in London, where he finished 11th in his first-round heat on
Wednesday and failed to qualify.
Kenyan athletics officials also confirmed on Friday that
distance runner Mathew Kisorio tested positive for a banned
substance in June, but rejected his claim that doping was
widespread in the country.
Earlier in the week Victor Conte, convicted owner of a
now-defunct laboratory at the centre of a global steroid
scandal, said it was easy to cheat at the Olympics by using
drugs.
The International Olympic Committee dismissed his comments
as being “like a poacher criticising a gamekeeper”.
JAMAICAN JOY
Jubilant Jamaicans at home and in London were nursing
hangovers on Friday following the fireworks of Thursday, when
Usain Bolt became the first man to defend both the 100 and 200
sprints and sealed his place in Olympic lore.
The Jamaican 1-2-3 in the 200, the highlight of the
Thursday’s athletics, made it particularly sweet for the
Caribbean island which has just celebrated the 50th anniversary
of independence from Britain.
“I made a goal to become a legend,” Bolt said after his
19.32-second dash. Reflecting on what he might do next, the
world’s fastest human added: “I have made my goal, now I have to
sit down and make another one.”
Jamaica’s women try to keep their country’s Olympic sprint
magic flowing in Friday’s 4×100 relay.
Women’s double 100 champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and
third-placed Veronica Campbell-Brown will lock horns with a U.S.
quartet featuring 100 silver medallist Carmelita Jeter and 200
winner Allyson Felix.
The Jamaicans will be missing from the men’s 4×400 after
failing to qualify but the United States, seeking an eighth
successive win in the event, are not as strong as usual and face
a real battle to keep their streak alive.
They would have no chance at all but for Manteo Mitchell,
who astonishingly secured a place in the final for his team by
running through the pain of a broken fibula bone in his leg.
Friday also sees medals on offer in the women’s 1,500
metres, women’s hammer and men’s pole vault, while the heats of
the men’s 4×100 relay should give another sellout crowd of
around 80,000 plenty of excitement.
MEDAL RUSH
Bolt’s triumph capped a remarkable Thursday when Kenya’s
David Rudisha broke his own 800 world record, Britain’s Nicola
Adams became the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title and
the United States held off a Japanese fightback to win their
third successive women’s soccer gold.
If she can win on Friday, Dibaba will be emulating the
5,000/10,000 double of Finnish man Lasse Viren in 1972/76.
Ashton Eaton took the unofficial title of the world’s
greatest athlete late on Thursday when he won the decathlon,
helping the United States to climb atop the overall medals table
with 39 golds and overtake China which is on 37.
The two have been neck-and-neck throughout London 2012 in
the race for Olympic bragging rights, but whoever wins, home
nation Britain will certainly be celebrating its best medals
haul since 1908 when London first hosted the Games.
Its 25 golds put it behind China in third place and easily
surpasses the previous best in Beijing of 19.
The golden glow has helped fuel the popularity of the Games
among a public that has packed many venues and lifted athletes
with deafening cheers.
Travel delays have not been as severe as some predicted
despite a surge in travellers. Transport for London said on
Friday that in the first 12 days of the Games, 47 million
journeys were made on the underground, up 30 percent on a year
ago.
There were disappointments for home fans on Friday though,
including on the water where Australia won gold ahead of Britain
in the men’s two-hander 470 sailing class. New Zealand repeated
the trick in the women’s event.
Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli won the men’s swimming marathon
though the Serpentine lake in London’s Hyde Park to become the
first swimmer to get medals in the pool and open water.
Attention turned to Sunday’s closing ceremony, when the
Olympic Flame will be extinguished in the curtain call for a
Games that has galvanished many Britons.
Before the baton is passed to Rio de Janeiro, which hosts
the first South American Olympics in 2016, the world will
witness a ceremony celebrating British music, with The Spice
Girls, The Who and Brian May among those set to perform.
(Reporting by the Reuters Olympic team; Editing by Sonya
Hepinstall)
