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Crawford denies Gatlin gold double
American Shawn Crawford denied Justin Gatlin of the Olympic sprint double on Thursday as he won the 200 metres title.
American Shawn Crawford denied his training partner Justin Gatlin of the Olympic sprint double on Thursday as he won the 200 metres title.
The 26-year-old made up for his disappointment in finishing fourth in the 100m to win in a time of 19.79 seconds, the fastest of the year and the eighth fastest of all time.
He led an American 1-2-3 as Bernard Williams took second in 20.01sec and Gatlin - who was bidding to become the first athlete to do the double since Carl Lewis in 1984 - won bronze in 20.03sec.
Athletics great Frankie Fredericks ran a stormer of a race to finish fourth in what is probably the 36-year-old Namibian's final race.
He edged out Portugal's Francis Obikwelu, the 100m silver medallist, while another of the fancied runners Asafa Powell of Jamaica did not even start the race.
The race had been delayed for several minutes as the Greek fans refused to quieten down and chanted 'Hellas, Hellas' (Greece, Greece) mingled with whistles despite appeals for them to be quiet for the start.
Fredericks even stood up from his blocks and pleaded with the crowd to be quiet as the race started seven minutes late.
Greek fans have been upset that national hero Kostas Kenteris, who missed a drugs test and then pulled out of the Games, wasn't taking part.
Kenteris was the defending champion.
