Paris Olympic: Golden hat-trick for American Ryan Crouser; Dutch win mixed relay

PARIS: American Ryan Crouser became the first man to "three-peat" in the Olympic shot put on Saturday, adding another gold medal to his packed trophy cabinet with a mighty throw of 22.90 metres.

His compatriot Joe Kovacs won his third straight silver and Jamaica's Rajindra Campbell took bronze.

World record holder Crouser battled with a nerve issue in his elbow this year but had no issues at the Stade de France as he produced his best throw of the season on his third attempt and clapped with satisfaction.

The win underlined the United States' total dominance of the event as they have now won 20 men's Olympic shot put gold medals. The next closest country is Poland with three.

Twice World champion Crouser clapped his hands and cheered as he posted 22.64 on his opening throw that would have been good enough to get him to the top of the podium.

He urged on the crowd before making his second attempt and pumped his fist after throwing 22.69 and the fans erupted as he improved that mark with his third throw.

Rain began to spit down midway through the competition and several competitors slipped, including Crouser, who had fouls on his next two attempts and did not make a sixth throw having locked up the gold.

Femke Bol ran a stunning last lap to lead the Netherlands to victory in the Olympic 4x400 metres mixed relay on Saturday night, glorious redemption for the 24-year-old who fell just before the line in the same race at last year's world championships.

Bol got the baton in fourth place, around 20 metres behind the leading Americans, but ate up the ground in a spectacular 47.93-second leg before passing American Kaylyn Brown just before the line.

The Dutch team of Eugene Omalla, Lieke Klaver, Isaya Klein Ikkink and Bol clocked three minutes 7.43 seconds, missing the world record time the Americans set in Friday's heats by just two-hundredths of a second.

The US took the silver medal in 3:07.74 and Britain claimed bronze in 3:08.01. Agencies

Also Read: Two-time Olympic champion Ryan Crouser breaks own world shot put record

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