Jamaica dominates 100m dash; Thompson is gold and sets Olympic record

Jamaica dominated the women’s 100 meter final in the Tokyo Olympics. In the final played this Saturday morning (31), Elaine Thompson-Herah won the gold medal and even broke the Olympic record with a time of 10s61. The Jamaican woman, who had already won the race at Rio-2016, secured her second title and remained the fastest woman in the world. The Olympic record was 10s62, conquered by the American Florence Griffith-Joyner, in 1988, at the Seoul Olympics.

The race was hotly disputed, with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, two-time Olympic champion and world ranking leader in 2021, leading the start of the race, until Thompson overtook her and achieved a spectacular victory. Shelly-Ann got the silver (10s74) and the bronze went to Shericka Jackson (10s76, personal record). Jamaican dominance at female speed.

“My chest hurts from screaming so much. I’m very happy, I’ve been through a lot. I’m speechless. I’m grateful for being able to prepare well and come here to defend my title. I knew I could beat this record. I went through ups and downs because of it. of injuries, but God helped me. I kept the faith all this time,” Thompson-Herah said.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Elaine defeated Shelly-Ann — who won gold in Beijing-2008 and London-2012 — with a time of 10s71. Five years later, Thompson-Herah makes the second best mark in the race’s history. The first is also from Flo-Jo: 10s49, considered unreachable by many.

If she saw her third gold medal in the race slip away, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce made history all the same. In addition to the victories in Beijing and London, the Jamaican won bronze in 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, and now won her fourth Olympic medal in the fastest athletics race, a record.

Swedes dominate record release

At the release of the male record, the “Vikings” threw the party for Sweden. Daniel Stahl confirmed his favoritism and took the gold, with a 68.90m throw in Saturday’s final. Also Swede, Simon Pettersson took the silver, with 67.39m. The one-two on the podium was accompanied by the Austrian Lukas Weisshaidinger, with 67.07m.

Poland wins mixed relay

In the debut of the mixed 4x400m relay at the Olympics, Poland won gold, beating the favourites. Polish Karol Zalewski, Natalia Kaczmarek, Justyna Swiety-Erseetic and Katetan Duszynski completed the race in 3min09s87.

The dispute for silver was fierce, and it was the Dominican Republic who took it. With 2:10s21, Dominicans Anabel Medina, Marileidy Paulino, Lidio Andrés Feliz and Alexander Ogando overcame the United States by a hundredth of a second.

–