TOKYO —
Elaine Thompson-Herah broke Florence Griffith Joyner’s 33-year-old Olympic document within the ladies’s 100 metres, pointing on the scoreboard even earlier than crossing the road in 10.61 seconds Saturday to defend her title and lead a Jamaican sweep of the medals.
Griffith Joyner set the outdated document of 10.62 on the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Thompson-Herah beat her prime rival, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, by .13 seconds. Shericka Jackson, who moved to the shorter sprints for the Tokyo Olympics, received bronze in 10.76.
This was the primary Jamaican sweep of the medals for the reason that ladies did it on the 2008 Beijing Video games — a feat considerably overshadowed that week by the record-setting efficiency by Usain Bolt.
However actually, there isn’t a overlooking the Jamaican ladies, who even have an extended historical past of dash success than the boys within the island nation. Fraser-Pryce completed on prime in that 2008 race, and accomplished her Olympic set within the 100, the place she now has two golds (2008, 2012), a silver and a bronze (2016).
Fraser-Pryce and Thompson-Herah are headed for a doable rematch within the 200, the place Thompson-Herah can be the defending champion.
This had been shaping up as a quick race for days, if not months. In June, Fraser-Pryce ran the fourth-fastest time in historical past at 10.63 seconds.
And when the sprinters arrived in Japan, they found a quick observe at Olympic Stadium. Within the semifinals earlier Saturday, the Jamaicans all cracked 10.8 to get on the checklist of the ten greatest instances in Olympic historical past.
Then, it was Thompson-Herah’s flip to make historical past.
Flo Jo’s information are older than nearly each sprinter within the ladies’s sport, save Fraser-Pryce, who was born about 18 months earlier than the American set the marks. Griffith Joyner’s world document, the ten.49, continues to be on the market, and no different girl has ever damaged 10.6.
Fraser-Pryce got here in pondering it may very well be her, and when she crossed the road in second, she flashed a glance of disbelief, then stood stone-faced along with her fingers on her hips trying on the scoreboard.
Thompson-Herah wasn’t stunned. She was trying left towards the clock as she approached the road. She was pointing even earlier than she bought there, conjuring recollections of Bolt, who celebrated with 10 meters to go when he ran 9.69 to interrupt the boys’s world document in 2008.
