Crowds throng to Olympic Park, athletics underway

FILE PHOTO

LONDON — British heptathlete Jessica Ennis didn’t disappoint the 80,000 fans who got up early to cram the Olympic stadium on the first day of athletics at the London Games.

Minutes into the morning program, Ennis broke the British record for the 100-meter hurdles, clocking 12.54 seconds, the fastest time ever recorded for the hurdles in the seven-discipline event.

Thousands of fans waved the Union Jack and gave Ennis a huge ovation when she was introduced for the last heat of the opening event. She improved on the 12.62 run by Eunice Barber of France in 2005.

Some 200,000 people were expected at Olympic Park on Friday, causing some long queues at stations around the area in east London. A main subway line to Olympic Park was briefly suspended in Friday morning’s rush hour on the busiest day of the games so far, but officials said the transit system was coping despite the upheaval and pressure on other lines.

Saudia Arabia’s first female athlete, meanwhile, didn’t last long in her opening judo bout.

Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani, appearing in a modified headscarf under a deal worked out between Olympic officials, the international judo federation and Saudi authorities, was out of her bout with Puerto Rico’s Melissa Mojica in just 82 seconds. A blue belt compared to other competitors’ black belts, she also looked out of her depth.

On the track, sprinter Noor Hussain al-Malki, given a wild card by the IOC and one of the first four women ever selected by Qatar for the Olympics, stumbled out of the blocks and fell to the ground within a few steps of her heat holding her leg and was taken from the track in a wheelchair.

The rowing basin at Windsor west of London provided the bulk of early medals and New Zealand rowers were the stars, winning two of four races.

Hamish Bond and Eric Murray won the men’s pair and Mahe Drysdale took the men’s single sculls for the Kiwis, their third gold of the games overall — all of them in rowing.

Britain’s Katherine Grainger captured her first Olympic gold on her fourth attempt, winning the women’s double sculls with Anna Watkins. Germany beat favored Croatia to win the men’s quadruple sculls.

“I feel this medal of all of them is the people’s medal,” Grainger said. “I feel so many people have been behind me and supported me and wanted this for me as much as I have.”

At the Aquatics Centre, Ranomi Kromowidjojo qualified fastest in the 50-meter freestyle preliminaries, keeping the Dutch swimmer on track to sweep the sprints at the games.

She touched in 24.51 seconds during the last morning of heats. Dutch teammate Marleen Veldhuis was second-quickest in 24.57. Francesca Halsall had the British fans cheering loudly for her third-best time of 24.61.

“It was amazing walking out,” Halsall said. “The crowd were going mental. You smile because you want them to know you are enjoying it.”

In a night final, Michael Phelps swims the 100 butterfly and will look to add to the two golds and two silvers he has won in five races in London.

Phelps’ last race before ending a career that has so far brought him a record 20 Olympic medals — 16 of them gold — is Saturday’s 4×100 medley relay.

At the Olympic range, Sergei Martynov of Belarus set a world record in the men’s 50-meter rifle prone as he won the gold medal he had been looking for at six games.

Martynov became the second shooter in Olympic history to score the maximum 600 points in qualification, and went on to score a total of 705.5 points, beating the 12-year-old best mark from Germany’s Christian Klees by 0.7.

“Obviously I am proud of the record and the medal,” said Martynov.

At The All England Club in Wimbledon, it was semifinal day in Olympic tennis with local favorite Andy Murray taking on Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer playing Juan Martin Del Potro. In the women’s draw, Serena Williams plays Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova takes on Maria Kirilenko in an all-Russian semi.

Serena Williams is on Centre Court twice — she also plays with her sister Venus against Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova.

At the velodrome, Britain’s Victoria Pendleton rides in the keirin, a day after the disappointment of her disqualification in the team sprint. After setting a world record in qualifying, British men will be favorites to add the team pursuit title to the team sprint won Thursday.