It was Elaine Thompson who won the GOLD for Jamaica in 10.71s for the 100m Women Final! Our 2-time Defending Olympic Champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the Bronze. A valiant effort from Shelly after aggravating her toe injury in the Semi-Final. She ran her Season’s Best through the line in 10.86. It was a bittersweet feeling for Jamaicans knowing she was in shape to win the Gold and make history as the first woman to win 3 consecutive Olympic 100m titles, but it wasn’t meant to be after the injury was aggravated. We are extremely proud of our Pocket Rocket for being able to run through the pain and making the podium. Torie Bowie of the USA who came 3rd at the US trials got the Silver in 10.83.
Congrats Ladies! It was a talented field, demanding focus, fitness, determination and of course speed.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast continued to impress and came 4th with her PB in 10.86 (10.859). Thousandths of a second were used to separate her from Shelly.
Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands still could not manage to get a good start and probably won’t ever because of her height and was 5th with 10.90. Look out for her in the 200m though!
Michelle-Lee Ahye of Trinidad and Tobago was 6th in 10.92.
English Gardner who the USA expected to win Gold and who won at the USA trials could not manage the pressure of the big stage and finished 7th in 10.94.
Christania Williams of Jamaica looked as if she was injured and came last far behind with 11.80. News came in later that she had cramping in her calf muscle as a result of dehydration. A sign of being a rookie. However she is just coming out of high school and she put on a remarkable effort for Jamaica to even reach the Finals with her Personal Best and we are proud of her.
For those who missed it and wish to see the lead up to this heated field in the Final, let me take you through the 100m Women’s Semi Finals, as some familiar names were not there.
Torie Bowie and Ahye took Semi Final 1 on the same time in 10.90! Christania Williams did very well to come 3rd beating Ahoure of Ivory Coast with her PB of 10.96.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce blazed the field winning in 10.88 over Dafne Schippers in 10.90! Ta Lou of Ivory Coast finished 3rd in 10.94. Shelly was in tears at the end over her toes though. It became a huge concern and most if not all Jamaicans swarmed social media worried about Shelly’s toe and prayed for Shelly and her toe for the Final. (The prayers worked!)
Elaine Thompson ate English Gardner‘s food (totally destroyed her from start to finish) also finishing in 10.88! English Gardner was stuck on clocking 10.90 as well, glaring over to Thompson’s lane wondering what really just happened.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou and Christania Williams went through to the final as the fastest losers.
Tianna Bartoletta from the USA did not make the final, coming a surprising 4th in the Semi-final won by Shelly in 11.00s!
10000m Men Final
Mo Farah of Great Britain got tripped up and fell during his race with about 14 laps to go but got back up giving the thumbs up sign and went on to win the race. Gold for Mohamed Farah! His 3rd Olympic Gold, running through the line with his Mobot sign. Congrats Mo!
Long Jump Final
Damar Forbes failed to hit over the 8.38m mark and finished at the bottom of the pack, 12th with a mark of 7.82m. Jeff Henderson of the USA won the Gold with 8.32m.
Damar’s PB is 8.25m, which was the mark hit by the 4th place finisher. The athletes battled with headwind and Damar said he just did not feel comfortable or in full flight in the air for his last 2 jumps. There were other pits that could have been used to change the wind direction for the athletes but the wind in RIO changes direction all the time. That may be the reason they continued with the same pit. This is also the case at our very own National Stadium in Jamaica with 1 pit so our athletes must be prepared to put out their best in all conditions. Better luck next time Damar.
400m Semi-Finals
Javon ‘Donkey Man’ Francis finished 5th from Lane 1 in Semi Final 1 won by Kirani James easily in 44.02. LaShawn Merritt followed finishing 2nd. So Javon did not qualify for the Final. Well tried Donkey Man.
Van Niekerk jogged to 2nd in Semi Final 2. Trinidad & Tobago’s Cedenio won the race in 44.39. Ja’s Rusheen McDonald finished 6th, unable to qualify for the Final as well.
Taplin from Grenada won Semi Final 3 coming from behind for the win in 44.44.
Women’s Tennis
Mónica Puig of Puerto Rico upset Angelique Kerber (World #2) of Germany yesterday to win Gold.
Men’s Tennis
Juan MartÃn del Potro will face Andy Murray in the Gold Medal match today at 1pm
Rafael Nadal will face Kei Nishikori in the Bronze medal match this morning at 11:30am.
Swimming
Michael Phelps helped take his team to Gold and an Olympic record last night in the 4×100m Medley Relay, in what he says will be his last Olympic race. His RIO total is 5 Gold and 1 Silver. He ends his Olympic career with 23 Gold medals and 28 Olympic medals overall and of course a standing ovation as he waved Goodbye to the spectators in the Olympic stadium.
Stay tuned for the action and Lane assigment of the Men’s 100m today!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
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