Elaine Thompson-Herah produced a performance for the ages as she sped to a new Olympic Record (OR) of 10.61s in the women’s 100m in Tokyo, defending the crown she first won five years ago in Rio and leading a Jamaican sweep of medals.
Her time means she breaks Florence Griffith-Joyner’s OR by a hundredth of a second in a time that made her the second-fastest woman in history. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, a two-time former champion was second in 10.74, with Shericka Jackson taking third in 10.76.
Fraser-Pryce was the first to get out of the blocks, as she typically does, but could not hold off her compatriot in the last 40m, with Thompson-Herah powering through and creating enough of a gap to her rivals that she was able to raise her left arm as she crossed the finish line.
The race was so fast that six of the eight athletes dipped inside 11s with the sole African representative, Marie Jose Ta-Lou clocking 10.91s to finish fourth.
Elaine Thompson was on fire,fiercest women 100m final I have seen in my lifetime.Really gutted for Okagbare not making the finals,the amount of Nigerian athletes that’s been thrown out is outrageous,and how was Reece Prescod allowed to race after a false start and Oduduru DQ’d double standards there imo