The Bahamian fell over the line to hold off American Allyson Felix by 0.07 seconds on Monday.
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America’s breakthrough star of these Olympic Games, Simone Biles, had to settle for a bronze medal as she was beaten in the individual balance beam competition. At the finish, Miller dove, or perhaps collapsed, across the line.
Miller won in a personal-best time of 49.44 seconds and remained on the spongy track grasping for air while looking up in disbelief after the conclusion to a heart-stopping and gutsy performance that took a photo examination to determine who won. I’ve never done it before.
The rules state that whoever gets their torso over the line first is the victor – with nothing to say you can’t fling yourself over.
Miller, 22, finished second behind Felix at the World Championships in Beijing a year ago and had a decent lead with 50 metres remaining.
“I don’t know what happened”.
“The only thing I was thinking was the gold medal, and the next thing I know, I was on the ground”, she told the BBC.
While Miller jumped with her arms flailing forward, the rules say the win is determined by which athlete has any part of her torso cross the line first.
“It hurts right now”, she said. “I have to get through this moment and look back”.
The women’s 400 highlighted a record day at the track for Americans, starting in the morning session when Coloradoan Emma Coburn became the first USA female to win a medal in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, an event added to the Olympic program eight years ago. Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet won the gold medal in 8:59.75, followed by Kenya’s Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi. “I’ll have to look back at the race but I might have been a bit more aggressive”.
In the 800 meters, David Rudisha of Kenya won a second straight gold medal, and Clayton Murphy picked up bronze to give the United States its first medal in that event since 1992.
Brazil’s Thiago Da Silva poses beside the indicating board after setting a new Olympic record and winning the gold medal in the men’s pole vault final during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. World-record holder Renaud Lavillenie took the silver medal, 2 inches behind Braz da Silva.
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In a field of eight runners Monday night, Felix was in lane 4 – right next to her US teammate Phyllis Francis, and two over from another teammate, Natasha Hastings. At these games, she has one event left, the 4×400-meter women’s relay.
