Jamaican Supremacy Continues, and So Does an Ethiopian’s Comeback

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BEIJING — In the longest and shortest events of Sunday night’s Olympic track competition, the Jamaican women’s sprinters made history with their stunning sweep of the medals in the 100 meters, and while the men’s 10,000 ended with little surprise when Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele won, it did require a comeback from a heart deeply broken since his Olympic title four years ago.

First came the finish by the Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart. In a blazing 10.78 seconds, Fraser became the first Jamaican woman to win gold in the event. Simpson and Stewart tied for second in 10.98. They were following the inspiration of their countryman Usain Bolt, who won the men’s 100 a night earlier and shattered his own world record.

“I don’t know if I should cry, smile, jump,” Stewart said. “I think this is a fabulous thing for the three of us to win the medals. It’s about time. We’ve been waiting for this.”

The closest a Jamaican woman had come to winning gold was Merlene Ottey in 1996, when she lost a photo finish to the American Gail Devers. Now, the Jamaicans have the first medal sweep in the history of this event.

“The secret of the team’s success?” Fraser said. “Reggae power.”

Part of the shock of this result was the lack of an American medalist for the first time in a nonboycotted Olympics since 1976. The 2004 silver medalist in the event, Lauryn Williams, finished fourth. The Olympic trials champion Muna Lee finished fifth and Torri Edwards was last.

Edwards said she was guilty of a false start, and Lee also said she believed Edwards committed one, so the American team filed a protest of the results. The protest was later denied by the I.A.A.F., track and field’s international governing body, which is in charge of all meet-related issues.

Bekele provided the nightcap in the final race of the evening, with no controversy. He outkicked his countryman Sileshi Sihine in the final 150 meters to win easily in an Olympic record 27 minutes 1.17 seconds. Micah Kogo of Kenya finished third.

Four years ago, Bekele also defeated Sihine in the Olympics — Sihine has seven silver medals in major competitions, many finishing behind Bekele — but much has changed since then.

Bekele was on a training run in January 2005 with his 18-year-old fiancée, Alem Techale, a promising runner who had won a world junior title at 1,500 meters, when Techale suddenly slumped to the ground. Bekele first tried to run to find help, but he ended up carrying her back to town. By then, she was dead.

He grieved and briefly considered retiring but returned to win another world championship in the summer of 2005.

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“I cannot give up,” Bekele said. “Running is my talent, my job, my gift. Anything can happen. You can’t do anything about it. It is O.K. for me. I can still control things myself.”

Bekele, 26, has now made his mark as one of distance running’s greatest competitors, possibly surpassing even the man who is his idol, his fellow Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie.

Gebrselassie, 35, finished sixth in this race and was not a factor in the end, when the top competitors ran away from the lead pack of seven runners. Gebrselassie is mostly a marathoner now — an event in which he holds the world record — but he skipped the marathon in this Olympics over concerns that Beijing’s pollution and humidity would exacerbate his asthma. He ran the 10,000 instead and celebrated with the two Ethiopian medalists with a broad smile.

The smiles after the women’s 100 were all worn by Jamaicans. They had completed their incredible sweep on a day full of disappointment for the American team.

First, a broken foot knocked the defending bronze medalist Deena Kastor from the marathon Sunday morning. Then, all three Americans in the men’s 1,500 — the reigning world champion, Bernard Lagat, Lopez Lomong and Leonel Manzano — failed to advance to the final.

But it was the failure to win a medal in the 100 that the United States team found most galling.

“Definitely it hurts,” Williams said. “It’s very humbling. I think we take for granted that we’ve been on top of the game for I don’t know how many Olympics before. It was really hard for me getting in second in 2004. So it’s definitely hard on us not to get a medal.”

Disappointment turned into a protest after Edwards insisted that she had committed a false start.

“I thought I moved before the gun,” Edwards said. “I kind of hesitated because I expected to hear a second gun. It threw me off a lot. It’s pretty tough.”

While a Jamaican victory was not altogether stunning, which Jamaican won came as a bit of a surprise. Fraser was not the most accomplished of her teammates. Two years ago, her best time was 11.74 seconds. Last year it was 11.31.

Her 10.78 was the second-best time in Olympic history.

“Two years ago, I was on the 4x100, but I really wanted to run an individual race,” Fraser said. “So I decided to go home and train really hard. So I put in the work and the dedication and everything and it has paid off.”

The Jamaican women said they were not bothered by the American protest, which was settled more than two hours after the race.

In the men’s hammer throw, Primoz Kozmus won the first track and field gold medal for Slovenia. His second throw went 269 feet 1 1/8 inches, which held up through the rest of the competition. His victory was cheered wildly by a group of flag-waving Slovenians in the front rows of seats near the throwing circle.

Gulnara Galkina-Samitova of Russia smashed her own world record in the women’s steeplechase, the first time the race was contested in an Olympics. Galkina-Samitova ran away from the field early and finished in 8:58.81. Her previous record was 9:01.59, which she set in 2004.