It is unclear whether Fraser-Pryce was fully fit to contest the final after she broke down in tears following her semi-final win. Farah fell early in the race-and another runner, trying to avoid him, almost stomped his head-yet the distance star from Great Britain recovered in time to defend his title. She didn’t make her high school track team and, until she finished second in the 200m at last year’s world championships, had barely made a splash on the worldwide scene, tucked behind Fraser-Pryce and the country’s seven-time Olympic medalist, Veronica Campbell-Brown, among others.
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There was also a tense finish in the men’s long jump as American Jeff Thompson leaped to glory with a jump of 8.38 meters.
“I promised my eldest daughter Rihanna a medal so I couldn’t let her down”. “I was excited to have the opportunity to defend my title and I’m equally excited that the woman who won it will be going home to Jamaica”. He trailed heading into the final 25 meters, then glanced to his left and measured up Andrew Fisher, a Jamaican who competes for Bahrain and was a body length ahead of him, three lanes over.
Running out of lane nine in heat four, Fraser-Pryce blew from the blocks before shutting off in the final 20 metres to win the event in 10.96 seconds. (Marion Jones won in Sydney in 2000, but was stripped of her gold medal after she admitted to using steroids in 2007). Ennis-Hill grabbed silver; Brianne Theisen-Eaton of Canada won bronze.
The lingering injury delayed her start to the 2016 season, however she came back to win the 100 at the world championships in Beijing last August. Galen Rupp of the US, the London silver medalist, faded to fifth.
“We got ourselves a medal, miss Kim, are you happy?” she beamed.
The hullabaloo over the Phelps’ farewell overshadowed the achievement of the women’s 4x100m medley relayers as they captured their country’s 1,000th Olympic medal, according to the United States Olympic committee.
Fraser-Pryce and Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast clocked the same time to the hundredths of a second – 10.86 – but Fraser-Pryce was awarded bronze after a review of images from finish-line cameras that can capture thousands of frames per second.
While Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica, the defending women’s 100-m, had to settle for bronze in Rio, fellow compatriot Elaine Thompson took the gold in a time of 10.71.
What was billed as one of the most competitive finals in the history of the event turned into something of a non-race. Given that Pryce has some longer odds, I feel like there is some value in her to come through tonight and win you a little more money.
In the heptathlon, Nafi Thiam of Belgium took the Olympic title away from Great Britain’s Jessica Ennis-Hill, one of the leading lights of the London Games.
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Fraser-Pryce revealed she had also been struggling with an injury. Thompson’s 10.70 in her homeland was the best of five sub 10.80 women’s sprints this year and certainly served notice that things could be changing once the sprinters reached Rio.
