BEIJING, CHINA - Jamaica's magical Olympic Games continued with Shelly-Ann Fraser leading a clean-sweep for the Caribbean island in the 100 metres final here on Sunday.

Fraser's win, with compatriots Sherrone Simpson and Kerron Stewart dead-heating for second, meant one country had monopolised the podium places in the women's event for the first time in Olympic history.

Fraser's victory came hot on the heels of compatriot Usain Bolt's astonishing world record win in the men's 100m final on Saturday and left the United States still searching for its first track and field gold in Beijing after three days of competition.

There was more disappointment for the Americans at the Bird's Nest when their Kenyan-born two-time 1500 metres minor medallist and world champion Bernard Lagat failed to qualify for the final .

Lagat, however, has a potential consolation in the 5,000 metres in which he is also world champion.

There was almost an Ethiopian one-two-three in the men's 10,000m where Kenenisa Bekele retained his title with Sileshi Sihine taking silver as he did four years ago in Athens.

But two-time champion Haile Gebrselassie, one of the all-time greats of distance running, found his 35-year-old legs were not strong enough to get him a podium place. He finished sixth with Kenya's Micah Kogo taking the bronze.

Bekele was delighted to have emulated Gebrselassie in winning the Olympic title twice.

'Winning again is special, very special,' said the 26-year-old.

'It is a big gift.'

Bekele was not the only champion to retain his title as Francoise Mbango of Cameroon also winning a second straight Games triple jump gold medal in an Olympic record of 15.39 metres.

The Jamaican women were understandably elated at their performance as the Americans wilted under their onslaught while Fraser, just as Bolt had done in the men's event, broke new ground by becoming the island's first female Olympic 100m champion.

'We made history, just like Bolt,' Simpson said as she summed up the mood of a nation.

'We're all great athletes and I'm very excited about the tremendous achievement. We're very good athletes and this says a lot for our country.'

Bolt, meanwhile, played an unlikely role in inspiring Russia distance runner Gulnara Galkina-Samitova to victory in the inaugural Olympic women's 3,000m steeplechase final.

Galkina-Samitova, after smashing her own world record on the way to a commanding victory, revealed afterwards her succes was in part due to a lucky bunch of flowers she'd received from Bolt.

'My coach and I, we went to the coffee shop and we met the boy who won the 100m, who gave me a bunch of flowers,' she said .

'He told me these flowers are transferable. If I took them, I must win gold and then pass them on to someone else.'

Lagat tried to downplay his disappointment at what must, at the age of 33, be his last realistic shot at winning the Olympic 1500m title.

'I ran hard, that's life,' said Lagat.

'I feel bad that it didn't go well. I gave it my all, but I want to feel that I didn't let my family down (he promised his mother after the Athens final he would deliver gold in Beijing). I gave everything I had.'

The first title of the evening session, the men's hammer, went to Slovenia's Primoz Kozmus, who won his country's first ever men's Olympic Games medal in track and field with a best of 82.02m.

Earlier, Constantina Tomescu delivered Romania its first women's Olympic marathon title but there was more Olympic misery for Britain's world record-holder Paula Radcliffe who finished in a lowly 23rd place after failing to overcome the effects of a leg injury.