At left, Jamaica's Danny McFarlane, silver medal winner of the men's 400 metres hurdles.
At right, Jamaica's relay team react after the women's 4 x 400 metres relay final at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games yesterday. The United States won the gold medal in a time of three minutes 19.01 seconds ahead of Russia and Jamaica.
-Reuters photos
Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
ATHENS, Greece:
THE CURTAIN came down on a memorable and historic Olympic Games for Jamaica last night.
Jamaica ended the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens with five medals two gold, a silver and two bronze. The last medal, a bronze, coming as a pleasant surprise in the women's 4x400m final. The quantity of medals was a bit less than was expected but there was no denying the quality.
MEN'S MARATHON
With just the men's marathon to be completed today, Jamaica is ranked 33rd of the 71 countries which have earned medals. In athletics, the island's top sport at the Games, Jamaica is ranked equal fifth in medals won, level with hosts Greece and Cuba.
The United States are the top country in athletics with 24 medals
- eight gold, 11 silver and five bronze.
For the first time since Arthur Wint, Les Laing, Herb McKenley and George Rhoden beat the world at 4x400 metres in 1952, Jamaica will come away from an Olympic Games with two gold medals.
That performance in Helsinki has always been the benchmark for Jamaican teams at the Games. The two gold and three silver medals at that Games have still not been bettered on the level of quality but the 2004 team has come very close.
SPRINT QUEEN
New sprint queen Veronica Campbell with two gold medals was undoubtedly the star of the show.
The 22-year-old Campbell has been an outstanding athlete for the past four years and to those close to track and field her success here has come as no surprise following a unique sprint double at the 2000 World Junior Championships in Chile, weeks after running the second leg on the silver medal winning sprint relay team in Sydney.
She came to the Games in top form and showed it with career best performances in both the 100m (10.93) and 200m (22.05). Campbell then followed up with an outstanding anchor leg as the Jamaica quartet set a national record 41.73 in winning Olympic gold for the first time in the 4x100m.
PERSONAL BEST
While Campbell was the outstanding individual performer, Danny McFarlane was not very far behind. Two years after switching from the 400m to the 400m hurdles the self-styled 'toughman' ran three powerful races, including a personal best 48.00 in a semi-final win. In the final he again ran very well and was only beaten by the classy Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic.
Overall, Jamaica had a great presence at the Games. There were eight male and nine female finalists. In two events, the women's 100m and the men's 400m, all three entrants made the final. The men failed to get a medal but Campbell made sure the women were on the podium by winning a bronze medal in the short sprint.
Two decathletes, Claston Bernard and Maurice Smith, represented the island for the first time at the Games and both gave encouraging performances. Bernard who had a strong first day was ninth with a national record 8,225 points while Smith who made his move on the second day ended up a creditable 14th with 8,023.
The island also had multiple finalists in the women's 200m where Campbell took the gold and Aleen Bailey fourth spot.
