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By Michael Place
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The United States, Croatia, Canada, Kenya and Jamaica all claimed Olympic gold medals on a day of athletics that will best be remembered for a heartwarming gesture of sportsmanship.
The USA's Christian Taylor (triple jump) and Croatia's Sandra Perkovic (discuss) won their events in the morning before Canada's Derek Drouin (high jump), Kenya's Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon (1500m) and Jamaica's Omar McLeod (110m hurdles) triumphed in Tuesday's evening session.
However the highlight of the day came in the opening hour when New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin and Abbey D'Agostino of the US helped each other to their feet after falling in their women's 5000m heat.
D'Agostino was first to recover, urging Hamblin to stand up and finish the race. Both regained their footing before D'Agostino again went to ground. This time Hamblin played the role of motivator and helper.
"Someone had to go help her," Hamblin said. "And if I could even give her one per cent back of what she gave me when she helped me get off the track, that would be amazing.
"She was like, 'go on, go on, I don't know if I can run, keep going, keep going!' "She was saying, 'I can't put weight on my knee.' It was buckling."
Despite both athletes showing obvious signs of discomfort, they managed to finish the race, albeit well behind their fellow competitors.
In moving scenes at the Olympic Stadium, the crowd rose to its feet and offered rousing applause as Hamblin crossed the line in 16 minutes 43.61 seconds. D'Agostino finished 26.41 seconds behind her.
"You come into an Olympic Games and everyone wants to win, everyone wants to medal," Hamblin said. "But, really, as disappointing as this experience is there is so much more to this than a medal.
"When someone asks me what happened in Rio in 20 years time, that's my story."
Regrettably, the inspirational scenes were played out in front of sparsely filled stands, a common theme at these Games.
Not that the swaths of empty seats diminished the level of competition. Tuesday evening's session again threw up a mix of drama and surprises as three gold medals were decided.
McLeod became Jamaica's first Olympic 110m men's hurdles champion, cruising to victory in the final event of the night.
The 22-year-old clocked 13.05 seconds to finish 12 hundredths of a second ahead of Spain's Orlando Ortega. France's Dimitri Bascou clinched bronze in 13.24.
Kipyegon timed her run to perfection to win gold in the women's 1500m. The 22-year-old Commonwealth Games champion held a steady pace for most of the race before making a move in the final lap and streaking to victory in the home straight with a time of four minutes 8.92 seconds.
Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba took silver in 4:10.27 and the USA's Jennifer Simpson pocketed bronze in 4:10.53.
Drouin leapt 2.38m to beat Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim to grab gold in the men's high jump by 2cm. Ukraine's Bohdan Bondarenko claimed bronze with a best effort of 2.33m.
Drouin put in a flawless display, clearing the bar in each of his six attempts. The 26-year-old was the event's bronze medallist at the London 2012 Games.
In the men's triple jump, Taylor successfully defended the title he won in London four years ago, defeating his rivals with a season's best leap of 17.86m.
Taylor's compatriot Will Claye took silver with 17.76m and China's Dong Bin claimed bronze with 17.58m.
"The job is done," Taylor said. "I never thought on my first jump that would be the gold medal.
"I wanted it so much. It came together, the stars aligned."
The 26-year-old's task was made easier by the absence of Cuba's Pedro Pablo Pichardo, who was second in the event at last year's world championships in Beijing. Pichardo withdrew from the Rio Games because of an ankle injury.
Meanwhile Perkovic overcame a nervous start to secure her second straight Olympic discus title.
The 26-year-old recorded 69.21m with her only legal throw after she fouled in her first two attempts.
France's Melina Robert-Michon took silver after throwing a national record of 66.73m. Cuba's world champion, Denia Caballero, had to settle for bronze with 65.34m.
In perhaps the most eagerly awaited event on Tuesday, Jamaica's Usain Bolt jogged to the finish line as he earned a berth in the 200m semifinals.
Jamaica's seven-time Olympic champion crossed the line in 20.28 seconds to comfortably win his heat.
"I hate the mornings so I am happy to have this out the way. It's a good start and I'm happy," the 29-year-old said.
Canada's Andre de Grasse qualified fastest for the semifinals in 20.09 followed by Spain's Bruno Hortelano (20.12) and Jamaica's Yohan Blake (20.13).
The men's 200m semifinals will be held on Wednesday and the final on Thursday.
