Meters

Los Angeles was host to the Summer Olympics 25 years ago. This 12th part of a 16-day series looks back at Wednesday, Aug. 8, 1984. The big news Carl Lewis, with two gold medals in hand from these Olympics, won the 200 meters on this day, putting him within one of Jesse Owens' record four from the 1936 Olympics. The thing of it is, Lewis wasn't running full speed because of what he termed a "sore leg," he acknowledged after the race. That is hard to believe since Lewis set the then-Olympic record of 19.80 seconds, which Michael Johnson would break in the '98 Atlanta Games with a time of 19.32.

It really has not been a common occurrence for Sanya Richards to let a championship gold medal slip away. But a glaring example came under the most glare, in the 400-meter final at the 2008 Olympics, when she led until coming apart in the home stretch and finishing third. Then everyone wondered how a woman who has been the world's top-ranked quarter-miler at the end of every season since 2005 had no big prize to show for it. "It hasn't been that many times I have failed as the favorite," Richards said.

As they passed time before the start of the 200 meters, Usain Bolt feigned a jab to the jaw of U.S. sprinter Wallace Spearmon, who ducked it with a little movement of his head. If only it were that easy to get away from Bolt's punch on the track. Like everyone else, Spearmon is nothing more than a sparring partner, real or pantomimed, for the Jamaican who is knocking out rivals, world records and concepts of human limits as if they were so many palookas. By setting a world record of 19.19 seconds in Thursday's 200-meter final at the World Championships, Bolt took the sport into FloJo territory, where a single sprinter is light years rather than hundredths of a second ahead of the past and the present.

At just age 23, Allyson Felix achieved the unprecedented Friday night. She became the first woman to win three gold medals in a sprint event at the world track championships. But Felix would rather have the one gold medal that is missing during the four years it has taken her to win three consecutive 200-meter titles at the biennial world championships. "I would love to trade my three world championships for your gold," Felix said to Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica at the medalists' news conference.

Track and field: In Thursday's Sports section, a news brief said sprinter Tyson Gay of the U.S. would meet Asafa Powell of Jamaica in the 100-meters event at the DN Gala meet in Stockholm next week. It is the DN Galan meet.

The Cincinnati Zoo says one of its cheetahs has become the fastest land mammal on record -- twice. Zoo officials say an 8-year-old female named Sarah ran 100 meters in just over six seconds Wednesday. That broke the old record set in 2001 by a cheetah in South Africa by a few hundredths of a second. Later, Sarah ran a slightly faster time. The speed translates to more than 36 mph. The cat was clocked at a breeding center on a certified course. Cheetah records are maintained by conservation groups and zoos.

Sempra Energy's Southern California Gas Co. utility sought regulatory approval for a $1.1-billion program to upgrade about 6 million gas meters to provide more data on energy consumption. The utility said it had applied for approval of the new automated two-way communications system with the California Public Utilities Commission. Installation could begin as early as 2011, it said. The commission approved a $572-million meter-upgrade program for Sempra's San Diego Gas & Electric utility in 2007.

Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric said it reached a compromise with consumer advocates on a proposal to spend $572 million on advanced meters. Advanced meters contain communications equipment that enables the utility to record energy consumption data remotely, eliminating the need for workers to read the meters manually. The meters also may provide consumers with detailed data about power consumption.

Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric utility got California regulatory approval for a $572-million plan to upgrade customer meters with equipment that will provide more data on energy consumption. San Diego Gas & Electric plans to install about 1.4 million advanced electric meters and upgrade 900,000 natural gas meters by the first quarter of 2011.

The allure of the air conditioner on a hot summer afternoon soon could become less attractive because of high-tech household meters that would keep customers and their utility apprised of fluctuating power usage and prices. Those souped-up meters moved a step closer to reality Tuesday as Southern California Edison told regulators that the devices would save its customers $109 million more than the program's estimated 20-year cost of $1.97 billion.