(BEIJING, August 23) -- Jamaica experienced contrasting emotions during the Women's and Men's 4 x 100m relays at the National Stadium on Friday, August 22, while Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba confirmed herself as the world's leading female long-distance runner with another gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

　　There was drama in the Women's 4 x 100m Relay when Jamaica, the hot favorites, overran the changeover zone on the second handover between Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart, one night after both the US Men's and Women's teams had dropped the baton and missed the final.

　　Russia took advantage, having stayed in contention throughout the race. Yuliya Chermoshanskaya was able to cross the line for the gold medal ahead of Belgium and Nigeria.

　　Jamaica's Men's 4 x 100m team helped to ease the disappointment of their women's team when they won the gold medal in a world record 37.10sec, 0.30 seconds faster than the previous record.

　　Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and Usain Bolt moved the baton seamlessly to anchor runner Asafa Powell, and the former 100m world record holder brought the team home with a spectacular final leg.

　　In the home straight, Trinidad and Tobago's 100m silver medallist Richard Thompson and Japan's Nobuharu Asahara ran down Brazil's Jose Carlos Moreira to claim the silver and bronze respectively.

　　In the Women's 5000m, the 23-year-old Dibaba won a second Beijing 2008 gold after her win in the 10000m on Friday, August 15.

　　In a slow-moving race that only came to life at the final bell, Dibaba broke from the pack to win. Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse took her second silver medal of the Games. Meseret Defar of Ethiopia took bronze.

　　Brazil won their first medal of the Athletics program when long jumper Maurren Higa Maggi leaped a season's-best 7.04m. By winning gold, Maggi ended Russian Tatyana Lebedeva's recent dominance. Lebedeva, who took silver with a 7.03m jump, had won gold at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and three of the past four world championships.

　　Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare took full advantage of her addition to the final following Ukrainian Athlete Lyudmila Blonska's expulsion from Beijing 2008 for testing positive for a banned substance. The 19-year-old jumped a personal-best of 6.91m to put herself in third place with her first effort, and managed to hold on to the position for the rest of the competition.

　　Steve Hooker won Australia's fourth medal of the Beijing 2008 Athletics program when he cleared 5.90m in the Men's Pole Vault, eventually setting an Olympic record of 5.96m.

　　The silver medal went to Russia's Evgeny Lukyanenko with 5.85m, while Denys Yurchenko of Ukraine claimed bronze with 5.70m.

　　Bryan Clay of the United States won Decathlon gold after leading the competition from start to finish. The 28-year-old ended on 8791 points.

　　Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus took silver with 8551 points while Cuba's Leonel Suarez grabbed the bronze in the last discipline with 8527 points.

　　At the start of the day, Italy won its second medal of the Athletics program when Alex Schwazer broke from the pack with 6km remaining to win the Men's 50km Walk.

　　Following him across the line was Jared Tallent of Australia, who added the silver to his bronze in the 20km Walk, while Denis Nizhegorodov of Russia took bronze.

　　The United States qualified with relative ease from heat one of the Men's 4 x 400m semifinals, along with Russia and Belgium. In the second heat, Great Britain finished first, with Jamaica and the Bahamas behind them. Australia and Poland qualified as the next two fastest teams.

　　In the Women's 4 x 400m Relay semifinals, Russia led home Cuba and Great Britain in qualifying from Heat 1, while the United States, Jamaica and Belarus all qualified for Saturday's final from the second heat. Nigeria and Germany qualified as the next two fastest teams.