Jamaica sweeps women’s 100m at Tokyo Olympics as Elaine Thompson-Herah sets record

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(TOKYO) — Jamaica swept the women’s 100m at Tokyo 2020 — repeating a feat only the Caribbean island nation has accomplished in Olympic history.

Elaine Thompson-Herah defended her 2016 gold medal with an Olympic record and personal best of 10.61 seconds, and assumed the title of world’s fastest woman alive.

She bested the previous Olympic record of 10.62 seconds set by American Florence Griffith Joyner at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

“Just a lil girl from BANANA GROUND who liked to run,” Thompson-Herah tweeted after her victory. “Believe In your dreams work hard and have faith in God.”

Thompson-Herah’s teammates joined her on the podium, with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce taking silver with her time of 10.74 seconds and Shericka Jackson the bronze with 10.76 seconds.

With her latest medal, Fraser-Pryce became the first athlete to win four Olympic medals in the women’s 100m.

“Congrats to Elaine on successfully defending her title,” Fraser-Pryce said on Facebook. “Grateful to make the podium for a 4th final.”

The three sprinters are also competing in the 200m and are in the relay pool for the 4x100m relay, both next week.

After the 100m, retired Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, regarded as the fastest man on the planet, acknowledged the medal sweep, tweeting “1.2.3” with three Jamaican flags.

Notably absent from the race was Sha’Carri Richardson. The American sprinter was seen as a medal contender after winning the U.S. Olympic trials in June with a time of 10.86 seconds, until she was barred from competing in Tokyo after testing positive for marijuana following the event.

Jamaica last swept the women’s 100m at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

This is the second time during the Tokyo Games that a team swept an event, after Switzerland took home all three medals in the women’s cross-country mountain bike race earlier this week.

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