Olympics-Athletics-American Centrowitz claims shock 1500m gold medal

But it was Centrowitz who ran where so many great American milers could not.

Mel Sheppard was the last American to win the event at the 1908 Olympics in London.

“I was like: ‘Are you kidding me?'” Matthew Centrowitz recounted.

Centrowitz ran his last 400m in 50 or 51 seconds and covered his last 300m in 38 seconds.

American Matt Centrowitz crosses the line to win gold in the men’s 1,500 meters in Rio on Saturday night. His sister, Lauren, competed in college for Stanford.

Then there’s Matthew, of course, the confident runner who always believed he was going to be the next big thing in the 1,500. In the opening lap the 26-year-old Centrowitz was right near the front, however, it was an extremely slow pace for the first lap.

Algerian defending champion Taoufik Makhloufi added silver to second place in the 800m, in 3:50.11, while New Zealand’s Nicholas Willis claimed bronze (3:50.24).

Felix now has six golds and nine medals overall, furthering her lead as the most decorated female track athlete in American history. She broke her own record, which she set on Friday night as part of the gold-medal winning women’s 4×100-meter relay. He even hung posters on his wall of Prefontaine, the charismatic and talented runner who finished fourth in the 5,000 meters at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Great Britain’s double 1,500m Olympic champion Coe presented him with the gold medal.

Three-time world champion and overwhelming favourite, Asbel Kiprop (3:50.87) lost momentum in the final push for glory and ended sixth as compatriot Ronald Kwemoi who fell in the second lap finished last (3:56.76). He got a good-luck email from Ryun – the first American high school runner to break the 4-minute mile barrier – before the race.

It was an all-African podium reward in the 800 metres, as South Africa’s Caster Semenya, Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui won the gold, silver and bronze respectively.

The U.S. was hardly the bridesmaid in the 1,500 either. Margaret Wambui of Kenya took bronze in 1:56.89. “The Olympics is the pinnacle of track and field”.

The IAAF was a year ago forced to drop rules that regulated their testosterone levels. He won an NCAA championship there before turning pro in 2011.