Athens - The ghost of disgraced Greek sprinter Kostadinos Kenteris returned to haunt the Olympic Games on Thursday when a noisy protest from the bulk of the 70 000 spectators delayed the start of the 200 metres final.
Greek spectators, furious at the absence of Kenteris who won 200m gold in Sydney four years ago, jeered and whistled as the finalists prepared for the start and shouted 'Hellas, Hellas' ('Greece, Greece') for several minutes.
When the final got underway, America's Shawn Crawford clinched gold in 19.79sec making him the eighth fastest performer of all time and sweeping away memories of his failure to even get into the medals in the 100m.
The 26-year-old's feat deprived training partner Justin Gatlin of emulating Carl Lewis in 1984 of completing the sprint double as the 22-year-old took bronze with Bernard Williams splitting them to complete the first USA cleansweep since the 1984 Games.
The US celebrated another gold when Dwight Phillips added the Olympic long jump title to his world outdoor crown.
America can probably look forward to a further gold in the women's 4x100m relay as three-time Olympic champion Marion Jones, running the second leg, ran the third fastest time in Olympics history in their opening heat.
Meanwhile, American-born Felix Sanchez won the 400m hurdles gold representing the Dominican Republic, the birthplace of his parents.
The man known as Superman extended his unbeaten streak to 43 races but he looked to be under the cosh from American champion James Carter on the bend.
However Carter folded and Sanchez ran away with the title while the American faded to fourth.
The booing and the chants of the Greek crowd, and indeed the whole case of Kenteris who withdrew rather than face a full scale inquiry over missing a dope test, received a sympathetic hearing from Crawford.
"I think I can understand what they are going through," said the new 200m champion.
"We are here in the birthplace of the Olympics, and the defending Olympic champion for certain reasons was not allowed to compete."
Frankie Fredericks, 36, bowed out in style in the 200m final.
He didn't quite make it onto the podium but the four-time Olympic silver medallist still finished a respectable fourth in what was his final race.
The Namibian had made his own efforts to calm down the crowd rising from his blocks to plead with them to allow the show to go on.
But when it came time to bring the curtain down on his glorious career he tried to talk but only tears came and he retreated to a quiet corner.
It was left to Crawford to pay a tribute.
"He has done legendary things for athletics, he is one of the men I look up to in the 200m."
World champion Sanchez is certainly the man that everyone involved in the 400m hurdles looks up to and probably will do for a long time to come after adding the Olympic title to his collection.
However, even he admitted he was prone to feeling the weight of the occasion.
"You'd have thought after 42 races it would get easier," said the champion.
"The confidence was still there, but pressure wise I was very emotional coming into the stadium after all the hours of waiting with the day off.
"Going into the blocks it was all or nothing."
