Tokyo 2021 Olympics: Riley Day posts blistering PB in the women’s 200m semi-finals

If you’re struggling to get those social media numbers up, Aussie sprinter Riley Day has a sure-fire way to make it happen. Check out the incredible response to her shout out.

Aussie Liz Clay ran a blistering heat, but a false start furore proved costly. Picture: Getty Images

If you want to get your social media numbers up, all you have to do is follow three simple steps:

1: Make the Olympics

2: Run the race of your life and almost make the 200m final

3: Give your Instagram handle a shout out on the national broadcaster’s coverage

That was the magic formula for Queenslander Riley Day, who has seen her Instagram followers go from about 20,000 people to 55,500 overnight.

Day, from Beaudesert, doesn’t have a sponsor and works in Woolies to fund her Olympic dream. And she went agonisingly close to making the Olympic 200m final after she produced a stunning career best 22.56sec running from the outside lane.

“Holy s**t,” she said on live TV.

“That was a much better race than this morning. I’ve got my groove. Now I hope it’s the fastest heat so I can get in the final. Because that is a massive PB. That’s awesome.

“I want to be the best and I’m going to stop at nothing to be the best.”

Riley Day’s Instagram shoutout on Ch7 is paying off! #Tokyo2020#Olympicspic.twitter.com/90EYhTsUzb

— Nic Negrepontis (@NicNegrepontis) August 2, 2021

Looks like Riley Day's call for more instagram followers is going well...screenshots taken a few minutes apart pic.twitter.com/W2gxbZUmUQ

— Hannah Ryan (@HannahD15) August 2, 2021

DAY ANNOUNCES HERSELF TO ATHLETICS WORLD

Twenty-four hours after Rohan Browning announced himself to the world, fellow young gun Riley Day has done the same.

The Queenslander went agonisingly close to making the Olympic 200m final after she produced a stunning career best 22.56sec running from the outside lane.

Day, 21, missed the final by 0.26sec, finishing 12th overall in what she labelled “very bittersweet”.

She had finished fourth in the opening semi-final which gave her a chance to go through as one of two fastest losers but the following two semi-finals were quicker which ended her final dreams.

“A 0.2s PB is huge in sprints, it’s just unreal,” Day said.

“I knew it was going to be a tough ask to get in that final but 12 overall is not too shabby for a first Olympics at 21.

“I’m really happy overall but it is a bit of a punch in the guts.”

Day was already looking ahead to next year’s world championships in Portland and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Riley Day in the women’s 200m. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“It opens a lot of doors I hope,” she said. But I’m overall really happy with everything I’ve done these past few days. I did what I wanted to achieve.”

In the moments after her race, Day set social media alight when she spoke to Channel 7.

“Holy s**t,” she said on live TV.

“That was a much better race than this morning. I’ve got my groove. Now I hope it’s the fastest heat so I can get in the final. Because that is a massive PB. That’s awesome.

“I want to be the best and I’m going to stop at nothing to be the best.”

Jamaica’s 100m silver medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the semi-final in 22.13sec while the defending Olympic champion backed up her 100m victory on Saturday night with a new personal best of 21.66sec in the second semi-final.

There had been drama earlier in the day during the first round when Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, the 100m bronze medallist, jogged around in her heat and got eliminated.

FUMING AUSSIE CLAIMS SHE WAS ROBBED OF FINAL BERTH

Joe Barton

Australian hurdler Liz Clay has taken to social media to express her frustration over multiple false starts in her semi-final.

Clay was devastated on Sunday night after she narrowly missed securing a spot in the 100m hurdles final despite running a personal best time of 12.71.

She was just 0.04 seconds off a berth in the final.

In the tweet on Monday Clay said: “Good morning to everyone except the three false starts last night.”

Technology that measures pressure on the blocks is used to determine when there’s a false start, but no runner in Clay’s race was found to have broken early.

Expert commentator Bruce McAvaney said the three false starts were “messy”.

“Whatever is happening it has to be sorted out,” he said.

“This is messy.”

Liz Clay was shattered to miss out on the 100m hurdles final.

Later in the night Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes was disqualified from the men’s 100m final after a false start.

Clay issued a warning to her Paris Games rivals after a frustrating night of false starts cost her a chance at the women’s 100m hurdles final.

Clay ran a blistering personal best of 12.71 to finish third behind Jamaica’s Britany Anderson and American Kendra Harrison in her semi-final but, agonisingly, finished 0.04s outside of the qualifying times to feature in the eight who will go for gold on Monday morning.

Liz Clay was frustrated by three false starts.

The semi-finals were hotly contested, with Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn shaving .06s off Australian Sally Pearson’s nine-year-old Olympic record.

But the 26-year-old Olympic debutant’s heat was plagued by three false starts – one caused by loud applause in reaction to the men’s high jump on the other side of the Olympic Stadium – and she said if not for them she would’ve taken even more time off her PB.

Aussie Liz Clay ran a blistering heat, but a false start furore proved costly. Picture: Getty Images

“I’m gutted. I would’ve been in that final if it wasn’t for those false starts,” Clay said.

“It was pretty frustrating to finally get going on the fourth one.

“I still think I held my own really well but I know I’m good enough to be in the final and a PB by .01 but it’s nothing compared to making that final so I’m pretty upset.”

Good morning to everyone except the 3 false starts from last night 😤

— Liz Clay (@lizclay_) August 1, 2021

But the Tokyo disappointment hasn’t dulled Clay’s enthusiasm for the Olympic Games.

If anything, it’s simply whet the appetite for the late-blooming speedster, who declared nothing will stop her making the Olympic final in 2024.

“It’s just not my day today. (But) I’ll be back in Paris, in that final, definitely,” she said.

Clay now has her eye on Paris. Picture: Alex Coppel

It’s inevitable for Clay’s achievements to be drawn to those of champion hurdler Pearson, who won silver in her Olympic debut and backed it up with gold at London 2012.

But Clay doesn’t believe the shadow hangs too heavily over her head.

“Sally and I had a really different path to our success. I feel I deserve to be out there just as much as she did,” Clay said.

“I want to paint my own path. Sally was a prodigy from when she was 18. I like to be an inspiration to those who might be a late bloomer as well.

Originally published as Tokyo 2021 Olympics: Riley Day posts blistering PB in the women’s 200m semi-finals