The Sunday Mail
Sprint events are one of the highlights at any Olympics and Tokyo 2020 was no different. This year the women’s 100m stood out as the as one of the most hotly-anticipated race of the Games.
The fastest women on the track, including Britain’s major medal hope Dina Asher-Smith, were on display for the world to see.
However, it was Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah who successfully defended her Olympic 100m crown, storming to victory with the second fastest time in history.
Thompson-Herah raced over the line at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium in 10.61sec, with two-time champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce taking silver in 10.74 and Shericka Jackson bronze in 10.76.
Thompson-Herah’s Olympic record winning mark matched the second-fastest time in history of 10.61 set by the late Florence Griffith-Joyner.
Only Griffith-Joyner, the 1988 Olympic champion who remains the world record holder with a best 10.49, has ever run faster.
The pre-race hype had focused on Fraser-Pryce, who until the final had been the fastest woman in the world over the distance this year. The 34-year-old had been bidding to become the oldest sprinter to ever win an Olympic 100m title, and the first woman to win three individual track and field golds.
But in sultry conditions at an empty Olympic Stadium, it was 2016 Rio gold medallist Thompson who seized the moment.
“I am really excited to come back and retain my title. My chest hurts, I am so happy,” Thompson-Herah said.
Before the race, the stadium was plunged into darkness as the finalists were introduced under a spotlight bearing down on the starting area. From a British perspective, BBC athletics commentator Steve Cram had tipped Asher-smith to win saying “we’ve got a real contender” in Asher-Smith.
“We haven’t always had somebody with a chance of if not winning it, certainly winning a medal,” said Cram.
“Dina knows that she’s going to have to be at her best, but she’s in my top three.”
Great Britain have not had a woman in an Olympic 100m final since 2008, and Jeanette Kwakye, who finished sixth in Beijing, had expressed confidence that the fastest British woman of all time could actually win a medal.
“We know, as a 200m world champion, what Dina is capable of, but she’s also exciting as a 100m runner.
“She is going to have to be at her absolute best to challenge for medals,” she said.
“What we love about Dina and why we are so confident about her medal chances is that she’s a championship performer and a competitor and she knows how to do it.”
The women’s 100m race was this year also so much more exciting than the men’s right now.
“We all know Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, we all know Elaine Thompson-Herah. Dina is becoming a big name,” said the 1984 1 500m Olympic silver medallist.
“On the men’s side it is an open race.
“Anyone who makes the men’s 100m final can probably genuinely line up and think . . . ‘I could maybe win a medal here’.
“That’s nice in some respects but in terms of bringing attention to the event, it’s not Bolt and it’s not (Justin) Gatlin.
“It’s missing some of the characters we’ve got to know over the last 10 years.
“The women though had the characters; they were all well-known people.”
Even better, the top contenders were all in the shape of their lives. It’s super exciting to see them all line up and be ready to go for a 100m that for the first time in a long time. It is so much more exciting than the men’s right now,” said former British 100m champion Kwakye.
When the actual race came to pass, Thompson-Herah looked stony-faced as she focused on the challenge ahead in the lane next to Fraser-Pryce.
Fraser-Pryce got out of the blocks smoothly but once Thompson-Herah hit her stride there was only going to be one winner.
She drew level with Fraser-Pryce after around 60 metres and pulled clear, pointing and gesticulating in delight at the electronic board displaying her winning time as she crossed the line.
Thompson-Herah had earlier given a clue she was in prime form with a dominant display in the semifinals, romping home in 10.76 despite easing up well before the finish line. –BBC/AFP.
