Olympics track and field results: August 18

Usain Bolt won his sixth individual Olympic gold medal in the men’s 200 meter final to cap a busy day of track and field at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The 2016 Rio Olympics track and field competition saw plenty of action on Thursday, including five event finals, another gold for Usain Bolt, and controversy in the first round of the women’s 4×100 relay.

Bolt won his third consecutive Olympic gold in the men’s 200 meters and sixth, and likely final, individual title overall to close out Thursday’s schedule. The Jamaican was well ahead coming out of the curve and didn’t ease up at the end, running a winning time of 19.78 seconds.

Canada’s Andre De Grasse further established himself as the future of sprinting with a silver medal in a time of 20.02 seconds. The shock of the race came with France’s Christophe Lemaitre improving his qualifying time by almost a second to take bronze in a photo finish with Adam Gemili and veteran Churandy Martina.

Defending Olympic champion Ashton Eaton entered the 1,500 meters, the final event of the men’s decathlon, 40 points ahead of French teammates Bastien Auzeil and Kévin Mayer in gold medal position after top five finishes in the 110 meter hurdles and pole vault earlier that day. Eaton ran a season-best 4:23.33 to become the third decathlete ever to defend an Olympic title.

Mayer finished just behind Eaton in the race to win silver, while Canada’s Damian Warner made up enough in the final event to take bronze. Eaton tallied 8,893 points to equal his own Olympic record from London 2012.

Kerron Clement of Team USA defended his status as gold medal favorite in the men’s 400 meter hurdles with a win in the finals of the event Thursday morning. The Beijing silver medalist added a gold to his collection with a time of 47.73 seconds, .05 ahead of Kenya’s Boniface Mucheru in second.

Turkey’s Yasmani Copello added a surprise bronze after medal threat Javier Culson of Puerto Rico was disqualified for a false start.

Team USA continued its strong Games in hurdling events with a gold from Dalilah Muhammad in the finals of the women’s 400 meter hurdles. Muhammad started off strong and comfortably held off Denmark’s Sara Petersen by half a second. The Americans grabbed another bronze in the event, with Ashley Spencer moving up from last to third in the final 100 meters.

American Ryan Crouser set a new Olympic record with a fifth round throw in the finals of the men’s shot put at 22.52 meters. The mark was never seriously challenged, as teammate Joe Kovacs finished in second at 21.78 meters. Tomas Walsh took the bronze for New Zealand.

Sara Kolak of Croatia unleashed a throw of 66.18 meters in the fourth round of the finals of the women’s javelin to outpace the field. The final two rounds of the rain-soaked event brought plenty of shuffling on the leaderboard, with Sunette Viljoen of South Africa winning silver at 64.92 meters, followed by Barbora Špotáková of the Czech Republic in third.

Qualification action was headlined by the first round of the women’s 4×100 relay, which brought plenty of controversy. After initially being disqualified for dropping the baton, the United States successfully filed an appeal that Allyson Felix was interfered with by Brazil.

Team USA then got a solo re-run and qualified with the fastest time, just ahead of Jamaica. China lost out on a fastest losers spot following the re-run.

The Americans also had the fastest time on the first round of the men’s 4×100. Jamaica lost to Japan in its heat and only had the sixth best time in qualifying, although it wasn’t featuring its top lineup.

In other qualification action, Matthew Centrowitz Jr. and Ben Blankenship both moved on with strong efforts in the semfinals of the men’s 1,500. London silver medalist Caster Semenya looks like the favorite in the women’s 800 meters after easily winning his semifinal. The morning began with the qualification round of the women’s high jump, where Team USA’s Inika McPherson and Chaunté Lowe advanced.

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