2008 Olympic Track and Field - Day 6 (part 2)

The misery for U.S. gold medal favorites continued Wednesday when 2007 World Outdoor Champion Brad Walker failed to qualify for the pole vault final. Neither Walker, who’s cleared a world-best 6.04 meters this year, nor fellow American Jeff Hartwig, were among the 13 vaulters who cleared 5.65 meters to qualify for Friday’s finals. Derek Miles, who missed twice at 5.55 and once at 5.65 before clearing, will be the lone American in the final. Other leading qualifiers include Russians Evgeniy Lukyanenko (the 2008 World Indoor champ) and Igor Pavlov, the other two vaulters without a miss Wednesday, plus Australian Steven Hooker and 2004 bronze medal winner Giuseppe Gibilisco of Italy. Lukyanenko and Hooker are the only vaulters other than Walker who’ve cleared six meters in 2008.

The U.S. formally protested Wallace Spearmon’s disqualification in the men’s 200 meter final Wednesday. Upon reviewing the replay, Team USA officials saw that Spearmon did commit a lane violation by stepping on the inside line. However, they also detected silver medalist Churandy Martina committing a similar violation. Team USA officials then dropped their protest of Spearmon’s disqualification but lodged a new protest over Martina’s actions. Meet officials accepted the protest after viewing the replay and awarded the silver medal to Shawn Crawford and the bronze to fellow American Walter Dix, who’d originally crossed the finish line fifth in 19.98 seconds. Dix now owns bronze medals in both the 100 and 200.

Despite several disappointments, the American women have surpassed their medal total from the 2004 Olympics, when they won six (two gold, two silver, two bronze). Through Wednesday, the 2008 track and field team has earned seven medals (two gold, two silver, three bronze). Team USA men have also won seven medals so far (one gold, three silver, three bronze).