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Rio 2016: Gemili misses out on bronze, Bolt takes gold

Nilesh Patel
AthleticsOlympics

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By Nilesh Patel

  • The men’s 200m final concluded as Bolt claims his second gold of Rio 2016
  • Gemili narrowly misses out on making podium in a photo finish
  • Team GB’s men and women teams qualify for 4x100m relay finals
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Day 7 on the track yielded no medals for Team GB but saw Usain Bolt win his eighth Olympic gold.

 

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Usain Bolt won the men’s 200m, in his third Olympic games which keeps alive his hopes of an unprecedented ‘treble treble’.

The Jamaican ran 19.78s to finish ahead of Canada’s Andre de Grasse and France’s Christophe Lemaitre.

GB’s Adam Gemili clocked the same time as Lemaitre but was denied his first Olympic medal in a tight photo finish.

Even though the 22-year-old was competing in his first Olympic 200m final and scraped through to the final as one of the fastest losers. Gemili had high hopes of making the podium after winning gold in the European Championships in Zurich 2014, as well as winning silver in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

However, Gemili was distraught after a photo finish declared him three thousandths of a second behind Lemaitre after clocking the same time of 20.12s.

For Bolt, Rio 2016 is his opportunity to cement himself as one the greatest athletes of all time as he aims to win gold in all Olympic finals he’s appeared in. His 200m triumph is his second gold of the games and he’ll hope to complete his medal haul in the 4x100m relay.

It was good news for the British relay teams as they qualified with no scares in the morning session. The women’s runners which included: Dina Asher-Smith, Desiree Henry, Darryl Neita and Asha Philip finished third fastest overall in the heats; which will bring confidence of them making the podium in the final.

Whereas, for the men qualification was less convincing. The team made up of: Richard Kilty, Chijindu Ujah, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and James Ellington were disappointed to be in lane one but felt they ran the best they could to qualify for the final. They qualified as the second slowest relay team with a time of 38.06s.

There was disappointment for Eilidh Doyle in the 400m hurdles after she finished last in the race. The 29-year-old was up against the ropes from the start as she was placed in the first lane and never troubled the leaders, despite being victorious at the Diamond League in Doha and Monaco this year.

It was a mixed night for Team GB’s 1500m male runners as Charlie Grice qualified for the final, but Chris O’Hare missed out after dropping out in the final 100m of his race.

Finally, in the women’s 800m final there will be a British runner after Lynsey Sharp progressed in a time of 1:58.65s, although her compatriot Shelayna Oskan-Clarke sadly didn’t qualify for the final after not making the top 3 in her heat.

Day 8 of the athletics programme will continue on Saturday morning 00:30am BST.