LONDON – Keshorn Walcott went into the javelin finals hoping only for a good effort.

He finished with the first gold medal ever for Trinidad and Tobago in a field event.

“It wasn’t the most popular event in Trinidad and Tobago. Hopefully now it will be known more,” he said. “I’m more than stunned, I’m surprised with my performance. I just went into the final to enjoy, so coming out with a gold medal is a feeling I can’t really explain.”

NBC CHANGED plans and will stream Sunday’s Olympic closing ceremony live online.

The ceremony still will air on a tape-delayed basis on NBC in prime time. For the opening ceremony, NBC took heat for not making the event available to anyone in the United States for hours after the fact.

The opening ceremony was watched by 40.7 million people, a bigger audience than for the Grammys and Oscars this year. NBC has since found that streaming live all Olympic sports events online hasn’t cut into its prime-time audience, which has been unexpectedly bigger than during the 2008 Beijing Games.

A SOUTH KOREAN soccer player who held up a sign with a political message after a victory against Japan didn’t get a bronze when the Olympic medals were handed out in a ceremony to the rest of his team.

Midfielder Park Jong-woo is under investigation by the IOC and soccer’s governing body, FIFA, for displaying the sign with a slogan supporting South Korean sovereignty over islets that are claimed by both his country and Japan. The largely uninhabited islets are called Dokdo by South Koreans and Takeshima by Japanese.

The IOC and FIFA have statutes that prohibit political statements by athletes and players. Olympic officials asked the South Korean Olympic Committee to take action against Park and that he not be present.

MOST ATHLETES have trouble with races at higher altitudes. Qieyang Shenjie of Tibet had an issue with the low altitude of the Olympics.

Qieyang, 22, claimed bronze in the women’s 20-kilometer race walk, the first Tibetan athlete China has fielded.

She said Tibetans in the crowd encouraged her as she raced. “I heard it! Really. I heard a Tibetan cheering me on!” she said.

USAIN BOLT ISN’T the only showman in the track world.

Seconds after Mo Farah won the 5,000 meters and completed an Olympic distance double gold for Britain, he dropped and did a few playful sit-ups.

That came in response to the antics of Bolt, who did a few push-ups immediately after winning the 200 earlier this week.

THE PRESIDENT of volleyball’s governing body said video replay will be introduced in time for the world championships.

The FIVB president, Wei Jizhong, said with shots reaching up to 75 mph “a line judge cannot judge this, impossible. (We will) use new technology in the line and above (the) net to solve all the problems.”

Wei said the sport would introduce line sensor technology and TV replay for net calls “to guarantee fair play.”

A USOC PANEL will look into whether it should bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics or the 2026 Winter Games. The U.S. hasn’t hosted the Olympics since the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, and a Summer Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta.

 

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