The view from the press conference room can be mildly instructive. The finals for the women’s 400m, the women’s 100m hurdles and the men’s 1500m began at 10.10 pm, 10.30 pm and 10.50 pm respectively.

The first two saw huge upsets. The American Jamaica-born favourite, the glamorous Sanya Richards who is celebrated for winning her races in the middle stretch, was overpowered in the home stretch and relegated to bronze medal place, with Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu and Jamaican Shericka Williams taking gold and silver. Fortune favours those who make the most of it, and Williams certainly did, winning her medal by running a personal best (49.69 seconds, against Ohuruogu’s 49.62 and Richards’s 49.93).

In the 100m hurdles, the favourite, American Lolo Jones, embodiment of the American dream with her rags to university scholarship story, hit the ninth hurdle and saw six hurdlers go past her. Her compatriot, Dawn Harper, won the race with a personal best of 12.54, with Australian Sally McLellan taking the silver in a photo-finish with the abundantly ecstatic Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (12.64).

But the ladies were beaten to the press conference by the middle-distance runners. The volunteer on duty said the women had either been caught up in long media interactions elsewhere or were still at the doping control centre. (The Americans must be wondering about that. Richards had last week raised her eyebrows at the fact that Ohuruogu was in Beijing at all, after having served a one-year ban for missing doping tests.)

The new men’s 1500m Olympic champion, who takes the crown from the legendary Moroccon, Hicham El Guerrouj, should have been happy to finish the media tasks of the day earlier than expected. Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzi, also Morocco-born, says he is still wondering whether to attempt an El Guerrouj-like 1500/5000m double because his body clock still has not adjusted to Beijing time. With Bahrain the time difference is seven hours, and so, “I have problems sleeping.”

... contd.