Robles gets gold, and spotlight

BEIJING - Dayron Robles raised the ribbon draped around his neck with both thumbs, lifted the gold medal to his lips, and kissed it, dedicating his Olympic triumph to all of Cuba.

In what organizers had long planned as China's golden night, promoting Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang as the face of the Beijing Games, Robles won the 110-meter hurdles for another communist regime yesterday.

Robles won in 12.93 seconds, two-100ths of a second slower than the Olympic record Liu set in winning the Athens 2004 gold medal. It was also a little bit off his own world record - the 12.87 he ran in June to break Liu's two-year-old mark.

The 21-year-old wasn't pushing for the line, already taking in the moment before it happened.

"I wasn't trying to achieve a given time," he said. "It was an Olympic final and an Olympic final is like nothing else. All I wanted to do was win the medal. The track was wet . . . so I tried not to force things. You know that if you slip up in hurdles, you can end up on the ground very easily."

Americans David Payne (13.17) and David Oliver (13.18) took silver and bronze.

Liu made a shocking withdrawal in the first round Monday, getting to the blocks but limping away after a false start in an emotional confluence of expectations and injuries.

Things went better for the Americans in the decathlon when Bryan Clay set an Olympic best in the discus to widen his lead in the 10-event competition.

With three events remaining, Clay had 6,455 points, 283 ahead of his nearest competitor, Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine, who had 6,172. Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus was third with 6,139. Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic, the reigning world and Olympic champion, was far back with 5,974, 481 points behind Clay.

The last US gold medalist in the event was Dan O'Brien in Atlanta in 1996.

Clay, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist and 2005 world champion, won his heat in the 110-meter hurdles in 13.93 seconds, the second-fastest time in the competition. Then Clay dominated the discus as expected, throwing 53.79 meters (176.5 feet).

In the women's triple jump, Nelson Evora of Portugal, the surprise winner at the 2007 world championships, won the gold. Evora won with a throw of 17.67 meters (57-11 3/4), giving Portugal its first-ever gold medal in an Olympic field event. World indoor champion Phillips Idowu of Britain took the silver and Leevan Sands of the Bahamas the bronze.

Alex Schwazer of Italy won gold in the 50-kilometer walk with an Olympic record of 3:37.09.