Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas beat out U.S. track and field star Allyson Felix in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games 400-meter final Monday night.
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Neck-and-neck with American world champion Allyson Felix coming down the home straight, the 22-year-old made a desperate head-first lunge for the finish line to clinch the win by seven-hundredths of a second.
With a second-place finish, she did miss out on become the first track and field athlete to win five gold medals overall.
With the silver, Felix became the most decorated USA female track and field star, with seven overall medals, including three in the relays.
The move that led to a photo finish appeared to be legal. Miller beat Felix by 0.07 of a second.
But Miller – runner-up to Felix at last year’s World Championships – was at a loss to explain her actions at a post-race news conference. “I really wanted it, it’s painful”. Miller could have come across the line backwards, in mid-air. or on her hands and knees.as long as the torso crossed first.
“We’ve been training so hard for it all year”, she added.
“I still don’t know what happened”, said Miller, who was declared the victor of yesterday’s final after an agonising wait for the official results to flash up on the scoreboard.
Felix too silver to claim the seventh Olympic medal of her career, with Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson finishing third.
However, Olympic legend Michael Johnson believed it was just an “unbelievable effort” by the athlete to win the race. “But I knew that it was his moment and he needed to be on camera and experience it for himself”. Instead, she got silver to go with the pair she won in 2004 and 2008 in the 200. “I have cuts and bruises, a few burns”.
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The pain will go away.
