USA suffers rare loss in 100

ATHENS, Greece, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Yuliya Nesterenko of Belarus won an amazingly close race Saturday night to earn the title of world's fastest woman.

Nesterenko captured the Olympic 100-meter dash in the time of 10.93, three-hundredths of a second faster than American Lauryn Williams. Veronica Campbell of Jamaica took the bronze.

The first four finishers were separated by seven-hundredths of a second.

It was the first American loss in the event since Montreal in 1976. The United States boycotted the 1980 Games and an American woman had won every 100 since until Saturday night.

Other gold medallists in track and field were Carolina Kluft of Sweden, who captured the heptathlon by more than 500 points; and Russia's Natalya Sadova, who outdueled Greece's Anastasia Kelesidou in the women's discus.

In qualifying, all three Americans in the men's 100 reached the semifinals and all won their second-round heats. Shawn Crawford was time in 9.89, Maurice Green in 9.93 and Justin Gatlin in 9.96.

American Jeremy Wariner, meanwhile, won his 400-meter semifinal heat to put the gold medal favorite in the final, which will be run Monday night.