Emotional Sanchez regains Olympic title
Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic stormed to victory in the Olympic men's 400m hurdles on Monday and then paid an emotional tribute to his late grandmother Lillian.
"I just wanted to make her proud so I've got her name on my spikes," said Sanchez, who won in a time of 47.63 to regain a title he first collected at the 2004 Athens Games.
Sanchez fell to his knees after crossing the line and plucked a photograph of his grandmother from his vest.
He broke down in tears during the medal ceremony -- a moment he missed four years ago in Beijing, where he failed to make it out of the first round on the day he learned his grandmother had died.
"The day she died in Beijing it broke my heart," Sanchez said. "That's why I ran with the picture close to my heart."
The 34-year-old, whose time was the same as he ran in Athens, beat home American Michael Tinsley, who ran a personal best of 47.91sec, while the pre-race favourite Javier Culson of Puerto Rico had to settle for bronze in 48.10sec.
Great Britain's world champion Dai Greene finished fourth and two-time Olympic champion Angelo Taylor finished fifth in a high-quality race.
Sanchez, who sports a tattoo of "Superman" on his shoulder and had "Abuela" -- Spanish for grandmother -- inscribed on a shoe, led from the off with Taylor and Culson chasing him down.
Coming off the final bend Sanchez showed no signs of slowing, although both Tinsley and Greene started to find an extra gear from the back.
Taylor looked to be gaining on Sanchez but stalled at the penultimate hurdle, while Culson failed to find the extra gear which had seen him dominate this season.
Sanchez pulled away to take a surprisingly easy gold, while Tinsley passed the tiring Culson and Taylor - who had been bidding to become the first athlete to win three Olympic golds in the event - to take second.
Culson also collapsed to the track - but in disappointment, despite it being his country's first ever Olympic medal outside of boxing.
"It was a very bad run on my behalf," said Culson.
"I'm not pleased with it at all. I lost my rhythm towards the end of the race and I couldn't get it back. I send my apologies to the people back home but at least I made it to the final."
Sanchez was born in the United States but runs for the country where his parents were born.
Sanchez said that people back in the Dominican Republic would be astonished as his slump in form over the past few years had many thinking he should hang up his spikes.
"It's going to be huge," he said.
"They expected the worlds (he won the 2001 and 2003 world championships), no one expected this. A lot of people said I should retire but I stuck with it. They'll all be celebrating now."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sanchez-regains-olympic-mens-400m-hurdles-title-195614042--oly.html
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