The two strongest 100m runners in Paris crossed the finish line in 9.79 seconds. At that point, no one knew who had won. The thousandths of a second were on the side of the 27-year-old from Florida and against the rising star from Jamaica, who had to settle for silver after setting the best time in the semi-finals. Bronze went to another American, Fred Kerley. He had won silver in Tokyo three years ago.
The Olympic champion from that time, the Italian Marcell Jacobs, came in 5th place in front of 70,000 spectators in 9.85. This meant he was only four hundredths of a second away from the podium. In the semi-finals he only made it to the final on time.
Before Lyles’ triumph, the Americans had endured a long dry spell in the premier discipline of athletics. Since Justin Gatlin won the 100 m titles in both the men’s and women’s events in Athens in 2004, the majority of the titles had gone to Jamaica.
Mahutschich completes her palmarès
At the age of 22, Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahutschich won the last major title she was missing. The world record holder, who has also triumphed at European and World Championships in the last two years, won the Olympic final with 2.00 m ahead of Australian Nicola Olyslagers. Australian Eleanor Patterson and Ukrainian Irina Gerashchenko tied for third place.
Gold with the first throw
Canadian Ethan Katzberg threw 84.12 m with his first throw in the hammer thrower’s final. This meant that more than just a preliminary decision had been made early on. Only five athletes had thrown further than the 22-year-old world champion in Paris on Sunday evening this century. The Hungarian Bence Halasz (79.97) and the Ukrainian Michailo Kochan (79.39) took the other medals.
