At an Olympics where everything the Jamaican sprinters grab is gold, the Americans can't even hold on to a baton. Veronica Campbell-Brown extended Jamaica's golden wipeout with a victory in the 200 meters Thursday before the United States finished off their great sprint debacle with two botched relays. It meant the United States was shut out of the sprint races for the first time in a century at an Olympics it did not boycott. In three hours of attrition at the Bird's Nest, all US favorites were beaten on the wet track Thursday, from Allyson Felix to Jeremy Wariner and its vaunted sprint relay teams. Wariner had not lost a major championship race since he won the 400 at the 2004 Athens Games. But at the games, he ran out of steam when it counted and was beaten on the final straightaway by compatriot LaShawn Merritt. Without heart, he even stopped trying over the final meters. “I didn't have anything left. I don't know what to say,” Wariner said. Only one conclusion was left for a team which had touted itself as perhaps the best ever. “The whole games haven't gone quite as planned,” said Lauryn Williams, who could not get her hand on the baton on the anchor leg. Williams, the 2005 world 100m champion, muffed the final exchange with Marion Jones four years ago in the Olympic women's 4x100m relay final. The American women are nine-time Olympic champion, but most recently in 1996. “If people want to issue the blame to me that's OK,” Williams said. “I can take whatever it is that people are going to dish out.” As favorites go, only Cuban world record-holder Dayron Robles stuck to the plan, easily winning the 110m hurdles in the absence of defending champion Liu Xiang of China. If Wariner pulled up short, at least Felix gave her best in the 200m, even if she came up short. Campbell-Brown made up all ground in the first dozen meters and was clear coming into the final straight, capping the first sweep of the four 100 and 200s since the United States did it in 1988. In all sprint events, it is Jamaica 4, United States 0. Jamaica can still win the two relays, but the United States will stay stuck at zero for sure. Within a half hour, the men's and women's teams both dropped the batons on the wet track at the Bird's Nest in heats they would have easily qualified from. The anchor runners, Tyson Gay and Williams, blindly held their hands out, hoping to feel that elusive baton. But inexplicably, the third-leg runners could not get it there. “I went to grab it and there was nothing,” said Gay, who came into the games as a double gold favorite but came away empty-handed. “It's kind of the way it's been happening to me this Olympics. I take full blame for it,” Gay added. “I kind of feel I let them down.” Instead, Campbell-Brown came back to the track less than an hour after winning her 200m to anchor Jamaica to another easy victory for a place in Saturday's final. No sweat, despite running the fastest time in a decade to win her fifth Olympic medal overall with a time of 21.74 seconds. She now has five Olympic medals, and, at 26, can still aspire to go to the London Games. Much like the whole American sprint team, Felix had an awful start and never got close to the surging Jamaican. Instead, she had to work hard to finish in 21.93 and beat Kerron Stewart by .07 seconds. After silver in the 100, it was bronze for Stewart in the 200. It was the same 1-2 finish as in Athens. World champion Nelson Evora of Portugal won the triple jump in 17.67 meters in wet conditions, giving Portugal its first gold medal in an Olympic field event. Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic sank to her knees in disbelief, clasping her hands to her head, when her last attempt in the javelin produced the fourth farthest throw in history and gave her gold. She threw a European record of 71.42 meters to pass Maria Abakumova of Russia, who had already improved the continental record to 70.78 meters. Earlier, Olga Kaniskina walked to gold in a driving rain that hampered even the best of Olympic athletes. After a week of clear and warm conditions, a downpour over the Olympic Green cooled things down for the 20-kilometer walk and Kaniskina responded with an Olympic record. - AP __
