Jamaica sweeps the sprint golds

By Sean Maguire

BEIJING (Reuters) - Jamaica's Usain Bolt could run away with a third gold on Friday to complete the Caribbean island's dominance of the Olympic athletics track.

The dazzling double gold winner and world record holder will race in the 4x100 metres relay. The 22-year-old's fierce speed has lit up the Games and the absence of serious rivals makes victory almost a certainty so long as mishaps can be avoided.

Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown, who won the 200 metres on Thursday to rout the United States, traditionally dominant on the track, will help to defend the team gold she won in the women's sprint relay in Athens.

Neither the men's nor women's race will feature Americans, who failed to qualify for the finals after dropping the baton embarrassingly in both heats, topping a dreadful week in which they failed to win sprint gold for the first time since 1976.

"We have so many sprinters in Jamaica, it's crazy. This has been the Jamaican Olympics," said 200m bronze winner Kerron Stewart.

"They brought their A-game," U.S. sprinter Lauryn Williams said of the Jamaicans. "I don't know where we left ours."

On a slippery, wet night, the U.S. men were not the only ones to fumble. Champions Britain and 2004 bronze medallists Nigeria were also disqualified, leaving just Trinidad and Tobago as serious competition to the Jamaican men.

Olympic fans will expect another searing performance by "Lightning' Bolt and more of his trademark theatrics. His exuberant 100m victory celebrations, begun before he crossed the line, were criticised by some as excessive and unsporting.