Left: Veronica Campbell-Brown shows off herr medal for the women's 200m at the Beijing Olympics yesterday. Right: Kerron Stewart smiles as she shows off her medal for the women's 200m at the Beijing Olympics yesterday. - charles pitt

beijing china (cmc)

Veronica Campbell- Brown repeated as 200-metre champion when she won at the Beijing Olympics at the Bird's Nest Stadium yesterday.

Campbell-Brown clocked a personal-best 21.74 seconds to win ahead of American Allyson Felix (21.93), with Jamaican Kerron Stewart (22.00) third.

This was the fifth gold medal of the meet for the Jamaicans, adding to Usain Bolt's double gold, Shelly-Ann Fraser (100m), and Melaine Walker (400m hurdles).

Significantly, the Jamaicans ended day seven of track and field as number one in the medal table in that discipline with the five gold, plus three silver medals and a bronze.

The Caribbean picked up other medals yesterday with Cuban Dayron Robles predictably landing the 110-metre hurdles and Bahamian Leevan Sands picking up a bronze in the triple jump.

Campbell-Brown's title had been under threat from double World Championship gold medallist Felix, but the 26-year-old Jamaican launched her title success with a blazing start and dominated the half-lap sprint.

She entered the home stretch a couple of metres ahead and won with authority.

"Fear is not something I bring to the track," Campbell said after her win.

"There was some pressure, (but) there was a lot of motivation from my team. I feel I am running very well," she added.

Stewart, who had won silver in the 100 metres on Sunday, said she was pleased with a second medal.

"I am definitely satisfied with today. Although I have been training for the gold I am not regretful. I have been running for nine months for this. I have tried my best," Stewart said.

The field had included five Caribbean runners, with Jamaican Sherone Simpson (22.36), Bahamian Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (22.61) and the Cayman Islands' Cydonie Mothersill (22.68) placing sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively.

Robles outclassed the sprint hurdles field ‹ that included Jamaicans Maurice Wignall and Richard Phillips ‹ and won handsomely in 12.93 seconds.

The Americans David Payne (13.17) and David Oliver (13.18) chased him home with Wignall sixth in 13.46 and Phillips (13.60) seventh.

Sands, after posting two sub-17-metre efforts in the menÕs triple jump, surged into contention with a strong third effort, measured at a Bahamas national record and career-best 17.59 metres.

The mark made him number three all-time in the English-speaking Caribbean behind Jamaican James Beckford (17.92) and Bermuda's Brian Wellman (17.62).

Portugal's Nelson Evora (17.67) grabbed the gold medal ahead of Phillips Idowu (17.62).

In the menÕs 400 metres, LaShawn Merritt upset his teammate and defending champion Jeremy Wariner in a USA sweep.

Merritt measured his race to perfection and won in a personal best 43.75 seconds.

Wariner (44.74) took second and David Neville made a dive at the finish to snatch bronze in 44.80 over Bahamian Chris Brown (44.84).

Trinidad and Tobago's Renny Quow was seventh in 45.22.

DROPPED BATONS

Tragedy struck for the USA in the sprint relays and both their menÕs and womenÕs teams dropped batons and crashed out.

In the menÕs race, the stick fell on Darvis PattonÕs handover to Tyson Gay on the last leg and Trinidad and Tobago went on to win in 38.26 with 100-metre silver medallist Richard Thompson on anchor. Japan (38.52) got second.

The second semi-final went to Jamaica in 38.31 with Asafa Powell on anchor. Canada (38.77) was closest to the Jamaicans at the finish.

JamaicaÕs women began the defence of their 4X100-metre title with an efficient semi-final win in 42.24 seconds, topping the Russian Federation (42.87). T&T did not finish the event.

The Americans were poised for an easy win when Torri Edwards attempted to handover to Lauryn Williams but the baton fell and Belgium shot forward to win in 42.92.

In the decathlon, JamaicaÕs World Championship silver medallist Maurice Smith made a moderate opening day and closed in 10th position after five events.

He won his 100 and 400-metre heats but posted only 7.04 metres in the long jump and 1.99 metres in the high jump.

He threw the shot 15.09 metres and tallied 4,217 points, 304 behind event leader Brian Clay, of the USA.