AFP
Rio de Janeiro, August 21: American runner Matt Centrowitz hogged most of the limelight after Mo Farah as he scored an upset win to claim the 1,500m gold here Saturday.
Centrowitz produced the biggest upset on the final night of track competition, beating defending champion Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria into second place to win gold in 3min 50.00 seconds.
He became the first American man in more than a century to win the event, which has been shared exclusively between African runners since 1996. The last American to win the Olympics 1500m was Mel Sheppard in the 1908 London Games.
“There’s nothing like it. It doesn’t compare to anything else I’ve won in my life,” said Centrowitz. “Doing my victory lap, I literally kept screaming to everyone I know ‘Are you kidding me’?”
New Zealand’s Nicholas Willis took the bronze medal in 3:50.24s.
Centrowitz’s win was one of three golds won by the United States, who also took the 4x400m relays.
US track golden girl Allyson Felix led home her team in the women’s 4x400m, crossing the line in 3min 19.06 seconds to claim a record sixth gold medal.
Felix, who 24 hours earlier helped the USA win 4x100m relay gold, has now won more track gold medals than any other woman athlete in history. “I can look back at the things I’ve accomplished and be really proud,” Felix said. “It was a good night.”
In men’s 4x400m, former Olympic 400m champion LaShwan Merritt led the US team home in 2:57.30s with Jamaica finishing with silver and defending champions Bahamas, with bronze in 2:58.49s.
The other big winner Saturday was Spain’s veteran high jumper Ruth Beitia, who scored the biggest win of her 20-year career with a gold. The 37-year-old became the oldest woman to win an Olympic jumping event after clearing 1.97m.
