Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin finished 1-2-3 in the 100-meter hurdles to give the United States its first sweep in the event, its seventh in the history of Olympic track and the 23rd for USA women, regardless of sport, over the history of the Summer Games. His missed the final by three-hundredths of a second. “My body felt good”, said the former world and Olympic 400m champion, who took a bronze in the 400 in Rio.
Advertisement
“It’s like a sisterhood”, said Rollins. Bolt finished in 19.78 to win by a scant 0.02 seconds. Bolt’s time of 19.78 was fastest among the qualifiers.
Despite the laughs on the finish line, Bolt recorded a blistering time of 19.79, with de Grasse a close second. De Grasse finished in 19.80.
Mo Farah, after falling in the 10,000-meter and still prevailing to win, almost hit the track again in a heart-pounding moment in the first heat of then men’s 5,000-meter but he got lucky and retained his balance and finished third, moving on to the finals.
Gatlin said he had been suffering with an injury after rolling his ankle in November.
On his run, Gemili said: “I really tightened up”.
“But he’s a young kid and he’s great and he’s got a lot of talent so I’m looking forward to a great talent in the finals”, he said.
Elaine Thompson got another sprint double for Jamaica. She blasted out of the blocks and never gave Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers a chance to catch her on the straightaway of the 200 meters. “It is tougher than I thought it was going to be but I am handling everything pretty well mentally and physically”, he said. She can make it a triple during the relay races today and Friday. Hopefully it will be enough to get into the final, but we will have to see.
Defending Olympic champion Brittney Reese of the United States took silver, while Ivana Spanovic of Serbia won bronze with a Serbian national record of 7.08.
While Gatlin stumbled, Bolt looked impressive as ever as he goes in search of a third successive gold in the event.
Another multi-sport athlete is Bartoletta, who won world championships 10 years apart – in 2005 and 2015 – and came to Rio de Janeiro hoping to medal in both the 100 meters and the long jump. Stratton, 26, produced her best jump of 6.74m in the fourth round. Eaton holds the world record, last set at 9,045 points in 2015, and his 8,750 score at Olympic trials is the best score in 2016 by 145 points.
It was his first gold medal following silvers at the last two world championships.
It was another good day for United States of America, who claimed a total of nine medals – two of them gold, while Japan moved up the ranking with a trio of golds in the women’s freestyle wrestling.
The five events on Day 2 of the decathlon are the 110-metre hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin throw and the 1,500 metres.
The one-woman track team from Russian Federation failed to get into medal contention.
Advertisement
“With two back surgeries, to come back having thought she’d never play again, to be here in an Olympic final – I think it’s just the most awesome story and I’m just so proud of her”, – Great Britain reached the final of the women’s hockey for the first time, and Kate Richardson-Walsh praised partner Helen’s resilience after a goalscoring performance. She was reinstated early Monday and started competition Tuesday.
