Over a hundred years of Olympic competition was straddled in the most dramatic fashion yesterday when Konstantinos Kenteris struck gold for Greece in the 200-metres final.

Kenteris, scarcely a name to shake the world of sprinting in the approach to the Games, loomed late on the scene to snatch victory from Britain's Darren Campbell in a time of 20.09 seconds.

And, in doing so, he became the first Greek male athlete to claim an Olympic athletics title since the legendary Spiridou Louis won the inaugural marathon at Athens in 1896.

Fittingly, the manner of the success matched the significance of the occasion as Kenteris grew from a modest start to hit the front just a couple of metres from the line.

In breaking a long line of American successes, he is the first white athlete to take the 200-metres title since Valerie Borzov succeeded for the old Soviet Union at Munich in 1972. And in that, there was special cause for celebration among the Greeks in the crowd.

Campbell, giving substance to his reputation as one of the most talented of the emerging sprinters, possibly exceeded his expectations in taking the silver medal, but, for Ato Boldon, it was sadly another case of so near and yet so far.

Boldon, drawn yet again in the unfavoured outside lane, was uncommonly sluggish off the blocks and, in his attempt to recover lost ground in the middle stages of the race, sacrificed the strength which might have yielded more than bronze.

Over the years, we have watched some absorbing dramas unfold in the long-jump pit and yesterday's competition so enthralled the crowd that, at times, the din reached the levels of Cathy Freeman's 400 metres success. On this occasion, it was Jai Taurima, one of Nick Bideau's school of athletes, who held them captive as he soared into the lead with a jump of 8.49 metres.

That put the pressure on to the world champion Ivan Pedrosa. To his great credit, the Cuban was not found wanting. He took off to break the sand at 8.55 metres.

In spite of not winning a single event, Erki Nool of Estonia is the new decathlon champion after an impressive show of character to hold off the challenges of the Czech Roman Sebrle and America's Chris Huffins. Britain's Dean Macey finished just out of the medals in fourth place.

Macey's hopes of becoming the first Briton to win a medal in the 10-event competition since Daley Thompson retained his title in Los Angeles in 1984 were dashed by the agonising margin of 28 points. The 22-year-old smashed his personal best in the last event, the 1,500 metres, to register a career-high total of 8,567 points when finishing fourth.

But the outcome had been determined in a jury room hours earlier after Thompson advised eventual winner Erki Nool to appeal against a decision to rule out one of his discus throws.

The Estonian, who ironically is coached by Thompson and also Macey's own coach Greg Richards, looked to have fallen out of contention after failing to register a score in the second event this morning. Nool initially had his throw of 43.66 metres given the all clear by the field judges, but it was then ruled illegal by the referee after he watched television replays.

Meanwhile, a record run by Ireland's 4x100 metres relay squad yielded only bitter disappointment early this morning.

The Irish quartet of John McAdorey, Gary Ryan, Tom Comyns and Paul Brizzel reckoned they had provided the most telling illustration yet of the improving standards of Irish sprinting in finishing fourth behind Ghana, Greece and Canada in a time of 39.26 seconds.

The record, which took two-fifths of a second off the old figures set during the World Championships in Athens, was valid enough but after the judges had consulted a photograph, the defending Olympic champions, Canada, were awarded third place in an identical time.

In the event, it was enough to give Canadians the last of the 16 qualifying places and the sense of hurt was clearly evident as the Irish departed the scene.

"The team performed brilliantly but it was so disappointing to discover that it still wasn't good enough to get us through to the next round," said team manager Patsy McGonigle. "Yet, to finish ahead of Russia in the overall placings was a great achievement."

A splendid first leg by McAdorey set up the performance and Ryan and Comyns sustained the momentum, only for Brizzel, running the anchor leg, to see precious fractions of a second disappear in the drive for the line.

Britain's decision to rest some of their established runners in order to keep them fresh for the later rounds of the championship came undone in the most spectacular manner when they were disqualified in their heat.

It all started to go wrong for them when Allyn Condon, deputising for Darren Campbell, was involved in a terrible change with Jason Gardener at the end of the first leg. And they knew for sure they were out when Dwain Chambers ran out of the box in taking the baton from Marlon Devenish for the last leg.