Shaunae Miller’s desperate dive at the finish was enough to secure the gold medal for Bahamas.
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As you might imagine, Felix was crushed by the shock defeat to Shaunae Miller, and it reportedly took her an hour to even address the media after the race.
Despite running her best race of the year, she came up short. According to NBC, here’s the rule: “The first athlete whose torso (as distinguished from the head, neck, arms, legs, hands or feet) reaches the vertical plane of the closest edge of the finish line is the victor”. Rather than focus on Miller’s move, she said, “It wasn’t my best race”.
She said that when she hit the ground, she had no idea she actually won the gold.
Felix was the defending Olympic 200-meter champ and was hoping for a rare 200-meter and 400-meter gold medal victory. By diving, Miller ensured that her torso crossed the line before Felix, who approached the finish line feet first.
Fresh off winning gold at the world championships in Beijing – where she beat Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas to the line by 0.41 of a second – Felix turned on the jets as she rounded the track in Rio, Monday night. Just disappointment, you know.
She continued, as reported by Daily Mail Online: “I feel emotionally and physically drained at this point”. I don’t think I’ve had a year this tough. “I’m just going to try and pick myself up”.
In the 2008 Olympics, American sprinter David Neville earned bronze after diving in the 400 final. She won the silver medal, making it her seventh Olympic medal overall.
This is the Bulldogs’ first track and field medal of the Games and 13 in history. “The next thing I was on the ground, It’s an fantastic feeling”.
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Felix, a four-time Olympic gold medallist, took silver in 49.51 seconds with Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson third.
