ATHENS, Greece – Joanna Hayes screamed and covered her mouth in shock. Roman Sebrle pulled off his shoes and collapsed to the track, his chest heaving.

Both won gold medals and set Olympic records yesterday – Hayes in the 100-meter hurdles and Sebrle in the grueling decathlon. But while Sebrle’s victory was a coronation, Hayes’s came as a surprise.

Hurdles world champion Perdita Felicien caused a violent crash just steps into the race when she stepped on the first hurdle and tumbled into the runner one lane over. Both were knocked out of the race, making way for Hayes to win in 12.37 seconds.

Olena Krasovska of Ukraine won silver in 12.45. Melissa Morrison of the United States was third in 12.56. It was the second straight bronze medal for Morrison, who also was third at the 2000 Sydney Games.

The old Olympic record of 12.38 was set by Bulgaria’s Yordanka Donkova at the 1988 Seoul Games.

Felicien, a Canadian who was an NCAA champion at Illinois, hit the first hurdle and stumbled into Russia’s Irina Shevchenko. After watching the rest of the race sitting beneath a hurdle, Felicien walked to the finish line, then sat on the track watching with a grimace as Hayes and Morrison took a victory lap wrapped in American flags.

“The first hurdle came up and I reached for it way too much. I probably should have waited until the middle of the race to try to come back. I didn’t have a great start and before I knew it I was on the ground and I could not believe it. There’s no coming back from that,” Felicien said.

“I’m devastated. I don’t think this is going to sink in. I think it’s going to take four years for it to sink in.”

The Russian Olympic Federation protested the result of the hurdles race.

In the decathlon, Sebrle finished with 8,893 points, breaking by 46 points the Olympic record set 20 years ago by Daley Thompson. He walked slowly around the track to celebrate, barefoot and wrapped in a Czech flag. The silver medal went to American Bryan Clay.

Clay finished just 71 points off the American record, totaling 8,820. The bronze medal went to Dmitriy Karpov of Kazakhstan with 8,725.

The world champion, American Tom Pappas, withdrew during the pole vault portion of the event yesterday afternoon because of a left foot injury. He was in fifth place at that point, with little chance of getting a medal.

Pappas, who is of Greek heritage, is one of three American veterans who came to Athens hoping for gold and expecting to be among the stars of the games – only to end up on the sideline as their events were decided.

In the pole vault, reigning Olympic champion Stacy Dragila failed to make it out of the qualifying round and could only watch last night as Russians Yelena Isinbayeva and Svetlana Feofanova battled for the gold.

And in the hurdles, 37-year-old Gail Devers was felled by injury before the first hurdle of the first round. The three-time world champion still has never won an Olympic medal in her signature event.

Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, on the other hand, finally got the 1,500-meter gold medal that had eluded him in the previous two Olympics, holding off Kenya’s Bernard Lagat in a dramatic back-and-forth finish yesterday. Four years ago, El Guerrouj was edged by another Kenyan, and in 1996 he fell on the last lap.

El Guerrouj defeated Lagat by .12 seconds, then kneeled and kissed the track as other runners came over to congratulate the sobbing Moroccan. On his victory lap, the flag-draped El Guerrouj did an impromptu dance to the Greek music playing over the loudspeakers.

Other winners yesterday were Tonique Williams-Darling of the Bahamas in the 400 and Ezekiel Kemboi of Kenya in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Williams-Darling won the 400 in 49.41, edging past Ana Guevara of Mexico in the closing meters. Natalya Nazarova of Russia won the bronze medal. Americans finished fourth, fifth and sixth.

In the steeplechase, Kenyans swept the medals – Kemboi winning in 8 minutes, 5.81 seconds, followed by Brimin Kipruto and Paul Koech. The three danced together after crossing the finish line.

Shawn Crawford led three Americans into the semifinals of the men’s 200,running a 19.95 – the third-fastest time in the world this year – despite slowing significantly in the final 20 meters. Also winning their second-round heats were 100 gold medalist Justin Gatlin and Bernard Williams.