Richards' hamstring fails her

BEIJING — Sanya Richards' grimace said it all. Not just for how her night was going to turn out, but also how a lot of athletes would feel as they walked off the track Tuesday night.

Richards was so in control of the 400-meter final of the Beijing Olympics that coming off the final curve, a feeling of elation came over her.

Several few strides later, she was grimacing. Her right hamstring had cramped. Before she knew it, the gold medal she had envisioned turned to bronze, even though she had entered with the fastest time in the field.

It was a scene that would play out again and again at the Bird's Nest. This night was for the birds.

Louisiana's Lolo Jones saw a gold medal slip away in the 110-meter hurdles when she tripped over the next-to-last hurdle and hobbled over the line in seventh place.

Three lanes over, Damu Cherry, from the University of South Florida, was envisioning a bronze medal when she was edged by Priscilla Lopes-Schliep by .01.

And Ricardo Chambers, representing Jamaica, placed fourth in his 400-meter semifinal and failed to advance.

The lone bright spot for the Americans was that Los Angeles' Dawn Harper won the hurdles instead.

Overall, the tunnel underneath the stadium was one of disappointment and disbelief.

"I knew that gold was mine," said Richards, who placed sixth in the 400 in Athens but won gold in a relay. "I thought I was going to run 48 seconds, I felt so good. I was already getting a bit elated off the turn, because I know how my races usually go, and I just had a really tough break on that one. My hamstring just really let me down."

Richards never had hamstring trouble before and felt fine warming up. She was passed over the final 50 meters by Great Britain's Christine Ohuruogu (49.62) and Jamaica's Shericka Williams (49.69). Richards finished in 49.93, well off her personal best of 48.70.

"I was leaning forward, which is always my indication I'm ready to roll, and right when I went for my last surge, my hamstring cramped, and I tried to roll over, and I kind of went wild in the lane, stepped off to the right, and from there, I just couldn't regain control."

Unlike many events, the 400 held its medals ceremony immediately after the race, but at no time did Richards appear to smile.

"Once again, just major disappointment," said Richards, 23. "Every championships I've been to, I've come up short. ... Once again, to lose in a major championship — and not just any major championship, the Olympic Games — you're thinking of waiting four more years, and it's just way too much."

The tears she tried to hold back trickled down. Earlier, she was seen in a hallway, crying into her cellphone, possibly while speaking with her fiance, cornerback Aaron Ross of the New York Giants.

"I'm going to comfort her as best I can," said Sharon Richards, her mother and agent. "We've been through this before. Once again we have to overcome these challenges."

Jones knew just how Richards felt. She had come from what she described as a childhood of poverty, living in a church basement, to the doorstep of Olympic gold. But like Gail Devers, who smacked the final hurdle in the Barcelona Olympics, Jones made a dramatic late stumble that drew a gasp.

"It's hurdles," Jones said. "You have to get over all 10. And if you can't, you're not meant to be a champion. So today, I was not meant to be the champion."

She compared what happened to her to a car racing at maximum velocity.

"When you hit a curve, you either maintain control, or you crash and burn,"Jones said. "Today, I crashed and burned."

Cherry didn't, but she was so close to Lopes-Schliep that it stung nonetheless.

"I thought I had it," she said.

Chambers, 23, placed fourth in his heat in 45.09.

"I think I performed well," Chambers said. "It was just tough out there today. I gave my best, and my best wasn't good enough. I think I'm happy with what I got."

Chambers said running on the outside — Lane 9 — "I just knew it was going to be tough. I knew I've got to run tougher than I used to be, and I did that.

"It was just harder than I thought."

He called his first Olympics "a great experience.

"It's an experience that makes me hungry for more, so next time around, I won't be saying I didn't make the final."

Hal Habib writes for The Palm Beach Post.