It was a dramatic men and women’s 200m final at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, but Jereem Richards and Shaunae Miller-Uibo rose above all of that to win their first individual Commonwealth Games titles respectively.
The women’s 200m final was expected to be a battle of superiority between double sprint Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson and Miller-Uibo, but fellow Jamaican Shericka Jackson upset the apple cart to win Silver in a Personal Best (PB) of 22.18s as the Bahamian smashed the Games Record to strike GOLD in a time of 22.09s.
Dina Asher-Smith held off Thompson to take the Bronze medal in 22.29s as the latter followed in 22.30s.
The men’s final was a keenly contested race which saw original winner Zharnel Hughes being disqualified after he appeared to have used his left arm to impede Richards when the Trinidad and Tobago athlete was closing in on him.
Incidentally, both athletes were awarded the same time of 20.12s before the English athlete was disqualified while Richards was upgraded to the GOLD medal position.
Canada’s Aaron Brown who initially finished 3rd, was upgraded to Silver as Northern Ireland’s Leon Reid took the Bronze medal in 20.55s. South Africa’s Clarence Munyai settled for 4th in 20.58s.
However, the medal presentation for the men’s 200m has been pushed till Friday as it is expected that England will file a counter-appeal challenging Hughes’ disqualification.
