Jamaica still dominate the track going 1-2-3 in women’s 100m

Tokyo: Even without Usain Bolt Jamaica still own the sprint at the Olympics.

Jamaica won all three medals in the women’s 100m with Elaine Thompson-Herah winning a second successive gold medal in an Olympic-record time of 10.61s.

She denied her 34-year-old countrywoman Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce from becoming the first woman to ever win three Olympic 100m sprint golds - the same as Bolt.

Elaine Thompson-Herah crosses the line and celebrates her gold medal.Credit: Getty Images

The two women have now shared the last four Olympic sprint gold medals.

Fraser-Pryce, who won gold in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, won bronze in Rio and has now added silver after finishing behind the 29-year-old Thompson-Herah in 10.74s.

Shericka Jackson made it a Jamaican clean sweep when she took third spot on the podium in a personal best 10.76 seconds.

Bolt’s dominance of the Olympics overshadowed everyone, even his countrywomen who have thoroughly dominated women’s sprinting in the same way Bolt dominated men’s. As lights dropped in the stadium and the track beamed a light show before the race, it was a pity there was no crowd but Thompson-Herah lit up the track.

Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica.Credit: AP

It was an exceptionally fast run - an Olympic record time - on a track that has proven to be quick, in perfect hot humid conditions with no wind. But they still could not get close to the 10.49s world record set by American Florence Griffith Joyner - “Flo-Jo” - in 1988.

With new technology spikes helping sprinters run quicker and the perfect conditions in Tokyo it only reinforced the brilliance of Flo-Jo’s long-standing record.

It always shaped as a race in four with Thompson-Herah, Shelley-Anne Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson and the woman with the quickest heat time Ivory Coast’s Marie Josee Ta Lou.

In the event Ta Lou cold not go with the Jamaican trio and finished fourth in 10.91s.

The women’s race re-aligned the story of the track for the women’s sprint after Nigerian sprinter, and former Olympic long jumping silver medallist and one of the favoured runners here, Blessing Okagbare was suspended on Saturday after testing positive for human growth hormone.

Fellow Nigerian Divine Oduduru was disqualified for a false start in his heat of the men’s 100m.

Earlier this week 10 other Nigerian athletes were barred from coming to the Olympics after failing to meet out-of-competition drug testing requirements. Suffice to say it hasn’t been a good week for Nigeria though at least Enoch Adegoke won his 100m heat in under 10 seconds, running 9.89s.

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