Athletics: Fun, joy and despair as the rain buckets down

Cathy Freeman laughed, South Africa celebrated three gold medals, but Welshman Colin Jackson rued the sight of a third gold slipping through his fingers.

Freeman's return after two years away from the track provided a bright point on a day of rain and chilly winds.

Australia's popular Olympic 400m champion was given a loud cheer by the crowd when she was announced for the semifinal of the women's 4x400 relay. She went on to help the Australian team into the final.

"I'm so excited ... I'm having a ball," Freeman said.

She admitted being edgy before the race, but afterwards she was laughing with the other competitors, apparently thrilled by the atmosphere.

"I was nervous, very nervous, but I wasn't worried about the times.

"It's the feeling I'm looking for," she said.

Freeman decided to compete in the relay only at the insistence of Australian track great and long-time friend Raelene Boyle, who has helped the athlete to cope with her husband's cancer.

Freeman took a year off after Sydney and then suffered a foot injury that kept her sidelined.

But she said the layoff had made her a "more mature, more experienced athlete."

She ran the second leg of her race smoothly, but was unable to reduce the 10m deficit to the Jamaican leader, though she caught up with the second-placed Cameroon runner.

She had earlier said she was 75 to 80 per cent fit for her race.

The thunder, lightning and torrential rain at the start of the events did not dampen spirits as the crowd joined in a chorus of Singing in the Rain. But the gloomy weather reflected the mood of gold medal hopeful Jackson.

The 35-year-old was despondent after he botched his performance in the 110m hurdles, failing to regain the crown he won in 1990 and 1994, and so dearly wanted back before he retires.

"I absolutely slammed the first hurdle. It cost me the whole thing," said Jackson, who has also finished second, fourth, fifth and seventh at Olympic finals.

"It has really annoyed me. I was in total shock."

There was joy for the South Africans, who won the 110m hurdles through Shaun Bownes, the women's high jump with Hestrie Cloete, and the men's pole vault with Okkert Britts.

Bownes, who won bronze four years ago, produced an unexpectedly powerful performance to hold off a late challenge from Jackson and complete the 110m hurdles in 13.35s.

Cloete continued to make history for South Africa. She leapt 1.96m to set a Games record and keep a firm grip on her high jump crown.

Last year she became the first South African to win a world title. She also took silver at the Sydney Olympics.

Britts, who in 1995 jumped a huge 6.03m, set a Games record of 5.75m in the men's pole vault.

Paul Burgess, of Australia, repeated the silver he won four years ago, and Dominic Johnson nabbed St Lucia's first medal, a bronze.

England's Nathan Morgan clinched the men's long jump crown with a leap of 8.02m, ahead of Gable Garenamotse, of Botswana, and Kareem Streete-Thompson, of the Cayman Islands.

Salina Kosgei, of Kenya, won the women's 10,000m in 31m 27.83s.

- REUTERS

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