Summer Olympics, Day 14: U.S. Wrestler Jordan Burroughs Wins Gold

Morgan Uceny’s 1500m run ended the same way her run at the 2011 World Championships ended: with her on the ground, no chance of winning, due to no fault of her own.

The race was tight. That’s not a big problem in races of less than a track length, where runners each get their own lanes. But in distance races, where all the runners find themselves bunched together along the furthest inside lane jockeying for position, accidents can happen: runners legs can clip each other, and when that happens, runners fall. A runner caught Uceny’s knee with one of her strides with less than a lap to go, Uceny tumbled to the ground, and just like that, her Olympics were over. If this had been a qualifying round, she could have appealed, as Oscar Pistorius’ 4x400 team did to earn a spot in the final of that relay, but no such luck in the finals.

The United States won the women’s 4x100-meter relay at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on Friday, and in the process smashed the world record with a time of 40.82 seconds. The foursome of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter became the first to collectively run under 41 seconds, breaking a 27-year-old record held by East Germany.

After the race, Jeter said she knew from the outset that the relay team could set a world record. Madison did too, but even she was shocked by just how dominant the performance was.

The United States missed out on a gold medal in the men’s 4x400-meter relay for the first time since 1980, finishing behind the Bahamas by just .33 seconds. Team USA did not participate in the event 32 years ago, or any event due to a boycott of the Moscow games. On Thursday, however, they were simply beat, fair and square.

Tony McQuay passed the baton to Angelo Taylor with the lead at the start of the anchor leg. Taylor anchored the gold medal foursome in Beijing, but was chased down and finally passed by Ramon Miller of the Bahamas within the final 75 meters of the race. The island nation was exuberant afterwards.

On Thursday and Friday, the women’s and men’s 10km marathon swim events were held. Athletes swam laps in the Serpentine in Hyde Park, for 6.2 miles. Almost two hours of physical activity is exhausting and depleting, and they can’t exactly hop out of the water for some Gatorade, so how do they get their in-race nutrition? With the help of a long pole, and acting like an otter.

First, they find their country’s flag, which designates their water bottle and are positioned on the end of a long pole being held by their coach ...

The Netherlands won its second straight gold medal in women’s field hockey on Friday, adding to its all-time medal lead in the event.

The Dutch blanked Argentina 2-0 in the final, winning their third match by shutout of the Olympic tournament. Maartje Paumen and Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel each scored a goal for the Dutch, who have won medals in women’s field hockey in each of the last five Olympics.

Paige McPherson added another tally to the United States’ overall medal count, defeating Franka Anic of Slovenia, 8-3, in the bronze medal match for the 67 kg division of women’s taekwondo at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

The two fighters were tied after the first round, with Anic scoring on one 3-point offensive kick, and McPherson scoring three 1-pointers. McPherson controlled the next two rounds, however. She outscored Anic 1-0 in the Round 2, and 4-0 in Round 3.

The United States has been the dominant force in the men’s 4x400-meter relay for the entirety of the event’s Olympic existence. But an upstart Bahamas quartet turned the tables on the U.S. on Friday, winning the first track gold in the nation’s history and stopping nearly three decades of American dominance.

Tony McQuay gave Angelo Taylor the baton and the lead entering the anchor leg of the relay, but Taylor, who won gold in the event in Beijing, was chased down by Ramon Miller on the last lap and passed in the final 75 meters. The Bahamas finished in 2:56.72 and the U.S. in 2:57.05.

Turkey took gold and silver in the women’s 1500m with Asli Cakir Alptekin winning in a time of 4:10.23. Her countrywoman Gamze Bulut lead for most of the race and finished in the silver position with former world champion Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain claiming the bronze. Alptekin’s medal marks the first ever Turkish gold medal in athletics.

The race started on a very slow pace and just about everyone was still in contention with less than 500m to go, but it was Alptekin who was able get out in front on the final lap.

Jamaica’s women’s 4x100-meter relay team looked like the favorite entering Friday’s final, with 100m gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and two-time bronze medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown running. And the Jamaicans did turn in the third-fastest time in the history in the event. But Team USA’s fleet foursome smashed the world record and left the Jamaicans in their dust for gold.

Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight, and Carmelita Jeter combined to run the final in 40.82 seconds, crushing the world record held by East Germany since 1985 by more than half a second, and thumping Jamaica (41.41) by almost six-tenths of a second.

Team USA is hoping to add more track medals in the relay events that will take place on Friday and Saturday. Two teams will run in finals Friday, and two more, the women’s 4x400-meter and men’s 4x100m squads, qualified for their Saturday finals.

The U.S. women easily won its heat in the 4x400 in 3:22.09, more than a second better than second-place Russia. And that time was the best of any team in qualifying, a great sign for Team USA -- especially considering that Sanya Richards-Ross, the 400 gold medalist, didn’t run in the heat.

All he sees is gold, and now he wears it as well. American wrestler Jordan Burroughs predicted a gold medal and came through, winning the men’s 74-kilogram freestyle wrestling final on Friday. Burroughs beat Iran’s Sadegh Goudarzi in the finals to win the USA its first wrestling gold of these Olympics.

Thursday night Burroughs tweeted that his next tweet would be of him holding a gold medal.

The finals for the men’s 4x400-meter relay and women’s 4x100 relay at the 2012 Olympics both take place on Friday, and the speculation about who, exactly, will be selected for the teams from nations’ “relay pools” is now over. Team USA announced its lineups for the men’s 4x400 final and the qualifying rounds of the women’s 4x400 on Friday.

The U.S. men have been dominant in the 4x400 for many years, winning every gold medal in the event since 1984, though their gold in 2000 was vacated retroactively. The 2012 foursome of Bryshon Nellum, Joshua Mance, Tony McQuay and Angelo Taylor only has one holdover from 2008 (Taylor), but is still a favorite to claim gold again, after tying the Bahamas for the fastest time in qualifying.

American Jordan Burroughs has advanced to the gold medal final in freestyle wrestling’s 74-kilogram division. Burroughs, the 2011 world champion, has looked impressive in advancing to the gold medal final on Friday. In the semifinals Burroughs defeated two-time world champion Denis Tsargush of Russia, 3-1, and will now face Iran’s Sadegh Goudarzi in the finals at 2:48 p.m. ET.

Goudarzi, who defeated Hungary’s Gabor Hatos in his semifinal, lost to Burroughs in the finals of the 2011 world championship and is the second-ranked wrestler in the world at this weight class, behind only Burroughs. Burroughs’ medal, either gold or silver, will be the first medal in this Olympics for the American wrestling men.

Did you know that BMX was popular in countries other than America? In fact, in the world of BMX the United States isn’t even all that good. Did you know that BMX is an Olympic event? Both of those facts were reaffirmed today when Latvia and Colombia won gold medals in BMX racing.

In the men’s race defending gold medalist Maris Strombergs won in a time of 37.576 seconds, Australia’s Sam Willoughby took silver and Carlos Mario Oquendo Zabala of Colombia placed third for bronze. American Connor Fields, who won his semifinal, placed seventh. Fields crashed on the final turn, but was out of medal contention by that point. The crash did not take Fields out of the race, only slowed him, and was not quite as gnarly (BMX term) as some crashes that took place earlier in the Olympics.

Five men’s boxing semifinal matches have been held on Friday at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. 10 men have been awarded bronze medals and five gold medal finals have been set.

In the men’s light fly (49kg) division, Paddy Barnes of Ireland lost a semifinal bout to Zou Shiming of China and captured the first bronze medal of the day. The judges scored the match 15-15 but Zou was determined to have landed the higher aggregate of punches, according to The Independent. Barnes has actually lost in the same division to Zou at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. In the other semifinal, Kaeo Pongprayoon of Thailand defeated Russia’s David Ayrapetyan, 13-12, to advance.

Friday marks Day 14 of the 2012 Summer Olympics, and the beginning of the end for the Games in London. After Friday, there are only 47 medals (of 302) left to be awarded over the final two days, including one of the most coveted: men’s basketball. But first, we have Friday’s semifinals to determine who gets to play for Sunday’s title.

Spain and Russia meet first (12 p.m. ET), in a rematch from group play that ended with a surprise win by the Russians. Then, at 4 p.m. ET, Team USA takes the court against Argentina in another rematch -- the Americans pulled away in their game Monday to win, 126-97. Will it be more of the same Friday night?

On Thursday, the United States women’s water polo team took home the gold medal. On Friday, the men’s team suffered another defeat and will now be trying to salvage a seventh-place finish at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In Friday’s classification match, the U.S. lost to Spain by a final score of 8-7.

Well out of the running, the United States is waiting to see who wins Friday’s other classification match between Australia and Hungary. The U.S. will play the loser of that match Sunday morning at 5:20 a.m. ET to determine who will go home in seventh and eighth place.

It was a rough Olympics for America’s representatives on the artificial turf at Riverbank Arena, as the U.S. women’s field hockey squad lost a classification match Friday to finish winless in London.

After going 1-4 in group play, they were matched up against Belgium on Friday to battle for a better place in the world rankings. Although the United States scored first on a goal from Paige Selenski, they couldn’t hold on, with Belgium striking twice to take a 2-1 victory and the 11th spot in the 12-team field hockey tournament.

The last swimming gold of the London Olympics went to the first African male ever to win Olympic gold in swimming, Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli, who added to his London tally with gold in the men’s 10km open water swim.

Mellouli was already known as one of the top distance swimmers in the world: he won gold in the men’s 1500m swim in Beijing and took bronze this time around. But he tried the swimming marathon for the first time this spring and, as you can probably tell by the fact that he won gold, the newcomer isn’t too bad at it. Mellouli accounts for two of Tunisia’s three medals in London. He is also the first ever to medal both in the pool and in an open water events after the introduction of the 10km swim in 2008.

Athletes wait their whole lives for a shot at Olympic gold, so an extra day probably wasn’t too big of a problem for competitors in the 470 sailing competition. The medal race in the men’s 470 competition was supposed to be Thursday, but lack of wind forced the event to be postponed until today, when a squad from Australia won for the men and New Zealand earned gold on the women’s side. Great Britain earned a pair of silvers.

After winning five of the 10 previous races in the event, Australia’s Belcher and Page only needed to finish one spot below a British boat to secure gold. Instead, they finished second while the Brits finished fourth, earning Australia its third sailing gold of the Olympics, the best of any nation. Page had previously won gold in the 470 class in Beijing.

The 2012 Olympic Games are heading into their final weekend. Friday’s events will run the gamut from taekwondo to wrestling to swimming marathons to BMX. If you were looking for the TV listings for Friday, you’ve come to the right place.

Here is Friday’s full TV schedule. All times are Eastern. All listed events will be live, except for NBC coverage, which will air at the same time in all time zones. NBC prime time events will air on tape delay. All of the day’s events can be streamed live online at the NBCOlympics.com website.

The eighth day of track and field events at the 2012 Olympic Games in London on Friday will be one of the biggest yet. It is an absolutely packed day, with six different gold medal finals taking place over the course of the afternoon.

Shannon Rowbury will try to net the United States another gold medal in the women’s 1500 meters and there will be U.S. athletes competing in all of the gold medal events, with the exception of the finals in the women’s hammer throw.