RIO DE JANEIRO — Kerron Clement of the United States dipped on the line to win the men's Olympic 400 meters hurdles Thursday after one of the pre-race favorites, Puerto Rico's Javier Culson, was disqualified for a false start.
Clement led down the home straight and was still clear going into the closing meters as he finished with a long, easy stride. But he had to lean into the tape to deny Kenya's Boniface Tumuti, charging up fast two lanes to his right.
Turkey's Yasmani Copello took the bronze, in a race thrown wide open by the failure of world champion Nicholas Bett of Kenya to make it through the heats.
Clement clocked 47.73 seconds to win by 0.05 of a second, with all the first five beating the previous best this season.
Culson, 32, bronze medalist in London in 2012, blew his chance by jumping the gun, and briefly sat sobbing by the side of the track before trudging away.
It was Clement's first major championship medal since he won the 2009 world title, having taken the silver at the Beijing Olympics the year before.
Alistair Brownlee defended his Olympic triathlon title with his brother Jonny taking the silver medal.
The British siblings finished comfortably clear of South Africa's bronze medalist Henri Schoeman.
Croatia's Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic won the men's 470 two-person dinghy gold medal with an eighth-placed finish in the medal race.
Fantela and Marenic took a 10-point lead into the finale, which was postponed from Wednesday because of lack of wind. Australians Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan claimed silver and bronze went to Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis of Greece.
British sailors Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark polished off a gold medal-winning performance in the women's 470 two-person dinghy.
Skipper Mills and crew Clark had only to finish the double-points finale after building a 20-point lead after 10 prior races.
New Zealand's Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie earned silver and France's Helene Defrance and Camille Lecointre grabbed bronze after the United States made a late mistake to tumble from podium position to seventh overall.
New Zealanders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke sealed the men's 49er sailing gold.
In the battle for the minor medals Australia's Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen came up with silver and Germans Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel captured bronze.
[caption id="attachment_78339" align="alignright" width="300"]
Americans English Gardner and Allyson Felix react during their women’s 4x100m relay in Rio Thursday. — Reuters
[/caption]The United States' women's 4x100m relay team faces a nerve-jangling time-trial to force its way into Friday's final after a dropped baton drama.
In an unusual move, the American quartet will re-run their race as a solo heat with the task of trying to beat eighth-fastest qualifiers China's time of 42.70sec.
China later responded to the US reprieve by filing a protest against the decision, officials confirmed.
The decision to give the defending Olympic champions another crack at reaching the final came after a tumultuous morning heat.
US star Allyson Felix was bumped by a Brazilian rival as she prepared to hand over to English Gardner, knocking her off balance and sending the baton tumbling to the floor.
At first glance it looked like another in a long line of US relay blunders in recent years. The US women botched an exchange and dropped a baton in both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.
But the US protested the latest apparent gaffe, citing the contact made with Felix, and the race referee handed them a reprieve.
The US team, which also includes Tianna Bartoletta and Morolake Akinosun, was to have a re-run alone, in the same lane, at 7 p.m. (2200 GMT) in an attempt to qualify by time, the statement added.
Brazil, which had initially finished fourth, was disqualified.
The heat was won by Germany's quartet in 42.18sec ahead of Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, and Brazil.
In the other semifinal, Jamaica stormed to victory in 41.79sec.
Jamaica's relay team, meanwhile, ensured Usain Bolt would have the chance to go for a third successive sweep of all the Olympic sprint titles when it qualified for the 4x100 meters final.
With the 100m title already secured, Bolt will be looking for his second Rio gold medal in the 200m final Thursday evening before backing up in the sprint relay Friday.
