Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson surged to the women’s 100m gold medal in 10.71sec to spoil countrywoman Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s bid for a third straight Olympic title.
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The 29-year-old Jamaican sprinter is hoping for her third consecutive 100m gold medal – the same unprecedented feat Usain Bolt is also attempting, although she isn’t really the household name he is. In recent years, thanks to a tradition first established by the likes of Merlene Ottey and continued by Bolt and Fraser-Pryce, Jamaica has dominated the world-best time lists and medal podiums through four Olympics. Bolt will try to do it on his own in the men’s race Sunday.
The Jamaican sprinter is easy to spot on the track by her green and yellow dyed hair- not to mention her incredible speed.
“When I crossed the line and glanced across to see I was clear I didn’t quite know how to celebrate”, Thompson said.
Rio de Janeiro (dpa) – Mo Farah fought back from a fall as he cemented his status as king of big event distance running with a second straight Olympic 10,000-metre title on Saturday. “I can’t imagine what is happening there right now”. I’ve seen her work hard and it was her time. “I’m happy we get to keep the gold medal”, Fraser-Pryce explained.
“I’m excited, I’m happy and I’m really happy for her”.
“Sometimes we don’t get to choose what happens and we have to make the most of what we have and last night my greatest accomplishment was just standing at the line and having the chance to defend my title”. You got the feeling, however, that a historic individual win for Fraser-Pryce – who received the loudest cheers as the finalists were announced – would have lifted the stadium’s spirits even higher. “I managed to dig deep”.
It would’ve given her one day’s worth of bragging rights over Bolt, the oversized sprinter with the outsized personality who has overshadowed her in nearly everything despite their dual dominance.
“First of all I didn’t think I would have been here at this championships, it was a tough journey”, she said.
Day 2 closed with Jessica Ennis-Hill coming up 35 points short of defending her title in the heptathlon. But Thiem was able to dig deep and secure a breakthrough triumph. I came determined to win a gold medal and I didn’t do that today. I thought about my family. Manuel was just.02 seconds behind the victor, Denmark’s Pernille Blume, in a race where the top six finishers were all within.12 seconds of each other. Lawson appeared to have landed his final jump at a mark that would have given him the gold but officials ruled his left hand was the first part of his body to touch the sand, reducing the jump to 7.78 meters.
Ennis-Hill had to settle for silver on the night behind Belgian victor Nafissatou Thiam, and Rutherford got bronze in the long jump topped by American Jeff Henderson.
The fourth medal event of the night was the men’s long jump.
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Elsewhere, Jeff Henderson won a dramatic long jump for the United States and Christoph Harting a surprise discus gold for Germany.
