Rio Olympics: Shaunae Miller Dives to Gold in 400 Meters

Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas threw herself across the finish line to win gold in the 400-meter final on Monday. She finished in 49.44 seconds, defeating Allyson Felix of the United States (49.51). Credit Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters Continue reading the main story In a desperate lunge at the finish line, Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas won the women’s 400 meters at the Rio Olympics on Monday night, defeating Allyson Felix of the United States. Running in Lane 7 and leading down the stretch, Miller apparently could sense that Felix was closing fast on the inside. With four strides remaining, Miller began to dive toward the finish line like a runner trying to steal second base. The maneuver actually may have slightly slowed Miller, 22, as she began to put less force into the ground to propel herself forward. Still, Miller’s torso crossed first, as required by the rules, and she took the gold medal in 49.44 seconds, her personal best. Miller remained on the track on her back until she was declared the winner in a photo finish. Felix, seeking to become the first woman to win five Olympic gold medals in track and field, took second in 49.51. The result was disappointing for Felix, who had hoped to win gold medals at 200 and 400 meters. She did not qualify for the Olympic 200. She still has a chance to win a gold medal in the 4x400 relay, which is scheduled to begin Friday. Simone Biles Is Beatable ... On the Beam Laurie Hernandez, the youngest member of the United States women’s gymnastics team, bested Simone Biles to win the silver medal on balance beam Monday. Biles held on for the bronze, her fourth medal of the Rio Games. Hernandez’s score of 15.333 was just short of the 15.466 earned by the gold medalist, Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands. Photo Laurie Hernandez on the balance beam. Credit Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press Biles and Hernandez were the top qualifiers among the eight finalists. Biles, a two-time world champion on the apparatus, had the most difficult routine among the gymnasts, but she put her hands down on the beam after a front tuck. That counted as a fall, and Biles lost a full point from her score, for a 14.733. Hernandez, who is 16 and relatively new to the international scene, was rock-solid on a punch front pike and had beautiful leaps and jumps. She nailed her double pike dismount. The Americans had put in an inquiry about her score — teams can contest whether judges assessed the difficulty correctly — but it was rejected, along with France’s inquiry into its athlete’s score. Wevers, a beam specialist known for her graceful routines, racked up points for her series of spins, which are as difficult as many of the acrobatics performed by her peers, if not more so. One of her most impressive turns is a double spin with her free leg held in a horizontal position. It is called the Wevers. She won the Netherlands’ first individual Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics. On Sunday, Biles won the vault and became the most decorated gymnast in American history, surpassing Shannon Miller’s 16 world and Olympic medals. In Rio, Biles won the individual all-around competition and was part of the American squad that won the team competition. She has a chance to win a fourth gold, on floor exercise, on Tuesday. The Medals, So Far United States 26 23 26 75 Britain 16 17 8 41 China 15 14 17 46 Russia 11 12 13 36 Germany 9 7 6 22 Italy 8 9 6 23 France 7 9 8 24 Japan 7 4 16 27 Australia 6 7 9 22 Korea 6 3 5 14 Hungary 6 3 4 13 Netherlands 6 2 3 11 Spain 4 0 2 6 New Zealand 3 6 0 9 Brazil 2 4 4 10 Kazakhstan 2 3 5 10 North Korea 2 3 2 7 Kenya 2 3 0 5 Canada 2 2 9 13 Poland 2 2 3 7 Colombia 2 2 0 4 Cuba 2 1 3 6 Switzerland 2 1 2 5 Belgium 2 1 1 4 Thailand 2 1 1 4 Croatia 2 1 0 3 Uzbekistan 2 0 4 6 Jamaica 2 0 2 4 Greece 2 0 1 3 Iran 2 0 1 3 South Africa 1 5 1 7 Sweden 1 4 1 6 Denmark 1 3 4 8 Belarus 1 2 2 5 Czech Republic 1 1 5 7 Romania 1 1 2 4 Slovenia 1 1 1 3 Argentina 1 1 0 2 Bahrain 1 1 0 2 Slovakia 1 1 0 2 Vietnam 1 1 0 2 Ethiopia 1 0 3 4 Chinese Taipei 1 0 2 3 Independent Olympic Athlete 1 0 1 2 Bahamas 1 0 0 1 Fiji 1 0 0 1 Kosovo 1 0 0 1 Puerto Rico 1 0 0 1 Singapore 1 0 0 1 Ukraine 0 4 1 5 Azerbaijan 0 2 2 4 Indonesia 0 2 0 2 Turkey 0 2 0 2 Lithuania 0 1 2 3 Georgia 0 1 1 2 Mongolia 0 1 1 2 Algeria 0 1 0 1 Armenia 0 1 0 1 Grenada 0 1 0 1 Ireland 0 1 0 1 Malaysia 0 1 0 1 Philippines 0 1 0 1 Venezuela 0 1 0 1 Norway 0 0 3 3 Egypt 0 0 2 2 Israel 0 0 2 2 Estonia 0 0 1 1 Kyrgyzstan 0 0 1 1 Morocco 0 0 1 1 Republic of Moldova 0 0 1 1 Portugal 0 0 1 1 Tunisia 0 0 1 1 United Arab Emirates 0 0 1 1 U.S. Falls in Field Hockey The United States women’s field hockey team saw its bid for an Olympic medal come to an abrupt end on Monday afternoon. In a quarterfinal match against Germany, the United States fell, 2-1, eliminating the team from a tournament in which it won four straight group-play games and knocked off some field hockey heavyweights in the process. Germany took control with two goals in the first 14 minutes, by Marie Mavers and Lisa Altenburg. Four years ago, at the London Games, the United States finished last among 12 teams in the women’s tournament. A new coach, Craig Parnham, came aboard the following year and made the team more fit and more formidable. — JAY SCHREIBER Bahrain’s First Olympic Gold, With Help From Kenya Photo Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet, front, won the 3,000-meter steeplechase Sunday. Credit Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Ruth Jebet, a 19-year-old originally from Kenya, gave Bahrain its first Olympic gold medal on Monday. She clocked the second-fastest time in history in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, 8 minutes 59.75 seconds. Bahrain’s track and field team is composed largely of athletes from East Africa. Jebet was born in Kenya and moved to Bahrain as a teenager. She has several teammates originally from Ethiopia and Nigeria. Two other runners originally from Kenya gave Bahrain top-10 finishes in the marathon on Sunday: Eunice Kirwa placed second, and Rose Chelimo was eighth. It is not uncommon for track athletes to change nationalities for reasons ranging from geopolitics to romance, as Jeré Longman wrote in The New York Times in 2003. It is the norm in table tennis, with players from China populating many nations’ rosters in Rio. Over the past decade, it has become increasingly common for Persian Gulf countries like Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to recruit runners from Africa. Kenya settled for silver in the steeplechase Monday. Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi finished in 9:07.12. A runner representing Kenya has never won a women’s steeplechase gold at the Olympics. Emma Coburn took the bronze to become the first woman from the United States to win an Olympic medal in the steeplechase. — THE NEW YORK TIMES Russian Long Jumper Cleared for Rio An appeals court ruled early Monday morning that the Russian long jumper Darya Klishina should be allowed to compete in the Rio Games, overturning an 11th-hour decision by track and field’s world governing body. Klishina will be the lone track and field athlete representing Russia in the Olympics. The track body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, has barred the rest of the team in the wake of revelations of an elaborate, state-sponsored doping program in Russia. Three days before the long-jump event for which she was registered, Klishina’s participation was threatened. She was barred from the Games on Saturday after an investigation found that a past urine sample of hers had suspicious scratches on the bottle and contained DNA from two people, suggesting it had been tampered with. Klishina, 25, promptly appealed to world sports’ arbitration court. The court ruled in her favor early Monday, after a four-hour hearing at an oceanside hotel here and numerous hours of deliberation. Read the complete article here. — REBECCA R. RUIZ Monday’s Results