Jamaican Elaine Thompson wins Sprint double
Newly crowned women’s 100m champion Elaine Thomson extended her dominance to the Olympic 200m event by securing Gold to becoming the 1st woman to do the prestigious Olympic sprint double since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988. Thompson edged out World Champion Dafne Schippers by 0.13 secs and finished the race with a timing of 21.78 Seconds.
Thompson’s Gold is indication of the emergence of a new breed of young Jamaican athletes who are ready to continue the country’s domination in sprint events.
USA clean sweep Women’s 100m Hurdles
Brianna Rollins of USA won Gold in the 100m hurdles final and her victory was made even sweeter with US teammates Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin winning the Silver and Bronze respectively, making it an all American sweep at the hurdles. This was the first Gold in track for the USA in Rio and the trio were elated after confirmation that they had completed the first podium sweep of the games.
Big names out but Bolt bolts through
Usain Bolt put all doubts regarding his form to rest as the Jamaican sprint king won his 200m semifinal with a timing of 19.78 seconds and recorded his season’s best performance to win a spot in the final. Justin Gatlin Bolt’s main competitor in the 100m, failed to qualify for the 200m final along with Jamaican Yohan Blake, another big name to miss out.
Neymar breaks Olympic record
Football superstar and Brazilian skipper entered the history books as the player to have scored the fastest goal in Olympic history. Neymar netted after just 15 seconds in the Men’s semifinal against Honduras bettering Canadian Janine Becker ‘s mark of 19 seconds against Australia in the first round of the women’s competition.
Brazil secured a place in the Gold medal match and will look to put the disappointment of losing out to Chile in the final of the last Olympics behind them as they face reigning World Champions Germany.
