Darling had not been beaten in any races since March, and tonight the IAAF World Ranked No.1 in her event was not going to let that competitive record slip in the women’s Olympic 400 metres final, however tough and hard was the challenge from Ana Guevara, Mexico’s World champion.

Williams-Darling thus became the first individual Olympic gold medal-winner for the Bahamas, just four years after their women’s sprint relay squad landed the country’s first ever gold at the Sydney Games. She clocked 49.41 to Guevara’s 49.56, a season’s best, while Natalya Antyukh, of Russia, was delighted to take the bronze with 49.89, edging ahead of the American trio led by Monique Hennagan (49.97).

Guevara in lane three, with Williams-Darling in lane four, roared off at a tremendous pace in an effort to close down on her principle rival.

The first time the women had raced this season, in Rome, the Mexican’s two-year winning streak was brought to an abrupt end, and Williams-Darling had won again when they raced at the Zurich Golden League meeting, too. So Guevara, after an injury-hit season, would call on all her deepest reserves of strength.

Inside Guevara, Sanya Richards was trying to go with the Big Two, and they were so quick to halfway that they had caught up the stagger on Hennagan.

Off the last bend, and Guevara moved right to Williams-Darling’s shoulder. Who might crack first?

Williams-Darling proved to be the stronger, so wrote another piece of Olympic history.

round heats had offered relatively trouble-free qualification, the qualifying conditions in the semi-finals of the women’s 400 metres were brutal: just the first two from each of three races guaranteed places in Tuesday night’s final.

Thus, Sanya Richards, the precocious teenaged American, had to wait for 20 minutes after placing third in 50.54 in the first semi to discover that she would go through to her first Olympic final, aged just 19.

World champion Ana Guevara took the first semi, having run almost shoulder-to-shoulder with Bahamas’ Christine Amertil, drawn in the lane inside her, as they finished in 50.15 and 50.17 (personal best - PB - for Amertil).

It meant that tiny Bahamas would have two finalists, as Tonique Williams-Darling, No 1 on the IAAF World Rankings for the event, demonstrated why she tops that list with her 50.00, ahead of DeeDee Trotter’s 50.14 (PB).

American champion Monique Hennagan laid down her medal credentials in winning the last semi, setting the fastest time of the night with 49.98, although it was clear that Katalya Antyukh, the European Indoor champion, was easing down in sight of the finishing line, reached in 50.04. With Novlene Williams of Jamaica third in 50.85, it meant that the last fastest loser place in the final went to a second Russian, Natalya Nazarova, who had finished third in semi-final two in 50.63.

The biggest uncertainty of the opening round of the Women’s 400 Hurdles concerned the fitness of Jana Pittman less than two weeks after the reigning World champion had undergone emergency arthroscopic knee surgery. 

But the 21-year-old Australian answered all questions with a resounding “yes”, as she led from the gun and had made up the lane stagger with her main rival in the heat, Russia’s Yekaterina Bikert, by the third hurdle.

With her time of 54.83, Pittman was able to conserve precious energy for Sunday’s semi-final by winning the day’s slowest heat. Bikert, at 54.95, closed the gap in the final metres while the Australian coasted at the end, always in control despite fighting the tight turn of lane two.

“I was so nervous before the race,” Pittman admitted afterwards. “I didn’t know if my knee was going to hold up, nor if I could hold my stride together through the sixth or eighth hurdle because I haven’t done it for so long.”  [In her post-operative rehabilitation, Pittman has been restricted to doing only three hurdles in training.]  “But technically, I feel fine. It’s the farthest I’ve gotten in the Olympics. In Sydney [as a seventeen-year-old], I was only fourth in my heat.” 

The full stadium was thick with Hellenic supporters who greeted Faní Halkiá with a loud ovation, and the Greek star responded with a 53.85 heat win, her fourth national record of the year. Halkiá used the usual fast start of American Lashinda Demus as a catalyst in her performance, as Demus settled back after leading over the first three hurdles and posted a relaxed 54.66 to finish in an automatically-qualifying second place.

The day’s fastest time came from Paris bronze medallist and current World record holder, Yuliya Pechonkina, in 53.57. The Russian, assigned in lane two like Pittman, was ably pulled along by the fast start of Jamaica’s Patrina Allen, who held or shared the lead through seven hurdles. As Allen faded during the run-in, Tetyana Tereshchuk of Ukraine slipped by for second in 54.63 as Allen’s 56.40 was insufficient for advancement. 

The season’s World list leader, US Trials champion Sheena Johnson, put on a strong exhibition of front-running during the first eight hurdles of her heat, but upon entering the final straight, she had attracted a large crowd. In the end, Ma³gorzata Pskit of Poland, with a PB 54.75, pipped the American’s 54.81, as China’s Huang Xiaoxiao, running almost unnoticed in lane eight, was close in a PB 54.83 for third. 

The remaining heat was won by Paris fourth-placer and the sixth-placer in Sydney, Romania’s Ionela Tîrlea-Manolache (54.41), ahead of Brenda Taylor of the US (54.72).

Tîrlea was likely speaking for the entire group of thirty-three hurdlers with her remarks about the early hour for the competition. “I had some problems with my pacing between 200m and 300m, but it was only nine o’clock in the morning, so I’m quite satisfied with my run.” 

Several past World champions fell out of the competition during the first round.  Running in the same stadium in which she won the first of her two World titles, Morocco’s Nezha Bidouane, who also won a bronze in Sydney, saw her third-place 55.69 barely miss out as a time qualifier. Sevilla World champion and Sydney fourth-placer, Daimi Pernia of Cuba, likewise was denied a spot in Sunday’s semifinals after her fifth-place 55.91. 

Also making an early exit was three-time World Championships finalist Andrea Blackett of Barbados after a sixth-place 56.49.