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Amazing Bolt enlivens capacity crowd

By PABITRA GOGOI

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 14 - It was the second day of the athletic events in the Rio Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium, near Maracana. The newly built stadium is situated in the northern part of the big and beautiful city, opposite the Barra and Riocentro complexes. It�s a giant stadium having a crowd capacity of 60,000.

Today, the stadium was jam-packed as sprint king Usain Bolt was to make his appearance in the 100m heat.

The day started with the men�s 100m qualifying rounds. Simultaneously, the women�s triple jump qualifying round was going on in the eastern side of the stadium. After completion of the men�s 100m qualifying round, the women�s 3000m steeplechase heat began.

The capacity crowd was eagerly waiting for the men�s 100m heat. In the meantime, the men�s discus throw final began with 12 finalists.

In the women�s 400m heat, India�s Nirmala was in the first group and running on the 7th track. However, she finished last and was eliminated.

After completion of that event, there was an announcement that the men�s 100m heat will start. The stadium erupted with boisterous cheers.

In the meantime, the men�s discus throw event was completed and Germany�s Harting Christoph hit the gold with a 68.47mtr throw. It was, however, far below the World Record (74.08 mtr) and Olympic Record (69.89 mtr). Poland�s Malachowski Piotr (67.55 mtr), who was leading till the final throw of Harting, took the silver and Jasinski Daniel (of Germany) bagged the bronze medal with a 67.05 mtr throw.

The 100m heat finally began. First to appear was Justin Gatlin of USA in the second batch. He took 10.1 seconds to finish the race. After that four more groups ran in the heat. Then Bolt came out with seven others to run in the 7th batch. The crowd cheered for Bolt who acknowledged the applause. Bolt was on lane No 6 and as he does every time, he appealed the crowd to keep silence. Soon, the starting gun was fired. There was no false run by any runner. Bolt burst off the block in his normal way. He gradually picked up speed and in a leisurely galloping way crossed the finishing line in 10.07 seconds as the crowd heaved a sigh of relief. The Jamaican did not need to put any extra effort to outdo the co-runners. Many in the crowd may not see Bolt running 100m again.

It was the final event of the morning session. After that the victory ceremony of men�s discus throw took place. Immediately after the ceremony, all the three medal winners attended a press conference at the Media Centre.

Harting was seen quite contended. Expressing his satisfaction, the well-built German said it would have been better had he surpassed the previous record.

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