Defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah led the Jamaican trifecta on her way to 100 metres gold at the National Stadium, Tokyo. While Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record remains intact, her Olympic record from 1988 now belongs to Thompson-Herah who claimed her second Olympic title in a scintillating 10.61sec.
It was a yellow and green domination with two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce taking silver in 10.74sec with Shericka Jackson winning bronze in a personal best 10.76sec.
Thompson-Herah, 29, who also won the 200m gold at the 2016 Games, started brilliantly from lane four and in an enthralling battle over the final 20m managed to hold off Fraser-Pryce on her outside. Fraser-Pryce, 34, had been trying to emulate Usain Bolt by winning a third 100m Olympic gold medal.
The expectation of something seriously fast had been raised in Friday’s heats – six women went under 11 seconds – and this was again confirmed in the semi-finals. There has been plenty of talk in the lead-up to Tokyo about the revolutionary Nike spikes which have flooded the sport over the past 12 months and resulted in records falling almost weekly.
This development combined with the fast Tokyo track was the perfect recipe for sprinters. And Thompson-Herah capitalised. While Griffith-Joyner’s world record of 10.49sec, also set in 1988, survived, her Olympic mark of 10.62sec from the Seoul Olympics was taken down by just 0.01sec.
Thompson-Herah had sent a message to her teammates when two hours earlier she clocked 10.76sec in easily the most impressive semi-final win. While the trifecta finish was amazing to watch, viewers of the race were left to wonder why there wasn’t more post-race love between the country-women.
Fraser-Pryce and Jackson were quick to embrace with each other but there didn’t appear to be any rush to approach Thompson-Herah.
