Elaine Thompson wins the 100m in track and field and throws the clock into a panic

Never has a woman run so fast since Florence Griffith-Joyner and her 10’49 on July 16, 1988 during the American selections in Indianapolis. Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah won the 100m at the Tokyo Games with the second fastest time in history in 10 seconds 61.

Already Olympic champion in 2016, the 29-year-old sprinter is ahead of her compatriots Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce (10’74), titled on the straight in 2008 and 2012, and Shericka Jackson (10’76), for a hat-trick. Neck-to-neck with a best starter Fraser-Pryce, Thompson-Herah made use of his long stride to break away after 60m of the race to raise his arms and then collapse after the line.

Despite a slightly unfavorable wind (- 0.6 m / s), she achieved a stunning performance, breaking the Olympic distance record in the process. If the controversial Griffith-Joyner (who died in 1998 at the age of 38) achieved 10’54 during her Olympic title in Seoul in 1988, this time was not approved due to too strong a favorable wind. .

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Seventh Olympic Medal

Thompson-Herah confirms that the 100m has become the preserve of Jamaica, both for boys (with Usain Bolt’s hat-trick in 2008, 2012 and 2016) and for women. Since the title of the surprising Belarusian Yuliya Nesterenko in Athens in 2004, the Caribbean country has not let slip a title with the doubles of Fraser-Pryce (2008 and 2012) and Thompson-Herah (2016 and 2021).

At 34, Fraser-Pryce thus won his 7the Olympic medal, becoming the 4e most medalist woman in athletics. Shericka Jackson (27) has won her bet of ” to come down “ in the 400m, where she won bronze in Rio in 2016, in the short sprint.

The three medalists of the day will be at the start of the 200m series on Monday. Bad news for the competition, starting with Marie-Josée Ta Lou. Already 4e in Rio over 100m and 200m, the Ivorian finished 4e (10’91) and first of the non-Jamaicans.

The World with AFP