Kemboi and friends lead merry chase

Athletics Men's 3,000 metres steeplechaseUnbelievable is not a word you like to use at the Olympics anymore. If you can't believe it then it's probably not real. But there were things happening in the Olympic Stadium last night that were unbelievable in the original sporting sense of the word.

It all started with the men's 3,000 metres steeplechase. We know the Kenyans now rule the event but they've no divine right to win all three medals. Well last night they did - again - and made it look like fun. How they've turned this most testing of distance races over 28 hurdles and seven water jumps into a stroll around the track is simply unbelievable.

Inside of course it probably hurt like hell, but when Ezekiel Kemboi reached the finish line in 8:05.81 he was already turning around to meet his two team-mates. All three had charged down the finishing straight waving their arms in joyous celebration, assured of only the second ever Kenyan one-two-three in Olympic history. The other time it happened was in Barcelona in 1992.

At the finish they promptly burst into their winning dance. Kemboi is just 22. Brimin Kipruto, who took silver, is just 19. Paul Kipsiele Koech, who won bronze, is also just 22. So young, and so unbelievably masterful in their event.

"Our secret is teamwork, morale, hard work, and dedication," revealed Kemboi afterwards. "We work as a team, we train as a team, and we win as a team," said Kipruto. "We wanted all three medals," said Koech.

That's the spirit.

For the record the first non-Kenyan finisher was Musa Obaid Amer of Qatar. Except that he is in fact a Kenyan, the former steeplechase artist known as Moses Kipchirchir. That made Spain's Luis Miguel Martin, fifth in 8:11.64, the best of the rest.

At one stage it appeared as if Amer would upset the Kenyan party, with Kipruto dropping off into fourth. As we now know, he was just catching his breath.

Kipruto surged over the final water jump as the likely winner, but Kemboi came into the straight first and held his form. They'd covered the last lap in 60 seconds flat.

After they'd cleared away those heavy barriers they lined up the lighter type for the final of the women's 100 metres hurdles. This one could be another formality.

Last year Perdita Felicien of Canada came from nowhere to win the world title. Earlier this year she won the world indoor title.

She was the fastest one on the line. But instead of winning she ran foot first into the first hurdle and tumbled into the second, and in the process brought down the Russian Irina Shevchenko. Unbelievable.

So, the American Joanna Hayes hurdled on oblivious to Felicien's crash and won the gold medal in an Olympic record of 12.37.

All the Canadian could do was sit back on her overturned hurdle. Her face said it all - disgust.

Then, to the unmistakable chants of "Meh-hi-co", they lined up for the final of the women's 400 metres. Well, the Mexican Ana Guevara gave them plenty to cheer about but she couldn't quite win the gold medal. That went to the 28-year-old Tonique Darling-Williams of the Bahamas, unbeaten this season and once again that bit too strong for the Mexican world champion.

Halfway around her lap of honour - a lot slower that her 49.41 winning time - she fell into the arms of her family. Couldn't believe it.

Not far behind and carrying a Mexican hat was Guevara, content it seems with her silver medal and her season's best of 49.56.

The Russian Natalya Antyukh took bronze (49.89) - the three Americans run out of it, fourth through sixth.

But before we'd left for the night there was another reminder that not all gold medallists in Athens can be believed. The discus champion Robert Fazekas of Hungary had just been kicked out for tampering with his drugs test, and Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania was now champion.

Truly unbelievable.