Elaine Thompson-Herah once again confirmed Jamaica’s dominance in speed tests.
Photo: Giuseppe Cacace / AFP / Getty Images
Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah confirmed her place in the pantheon of sprint greats on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old, who had already won gold and broken a world record in the 100-meter sprint on Saturday, achieved a second gold medal, this time in the 200-meter sprint.
Thompson-Herah walked the distance in 21.53 seconds, just 0.19 seconds off the long-standing world record of Florence Griffith-Joyner.
It is the second fastest time in history and the second time that the Jamaican has won a double of 100 m and 200 m flat in the Olympics (she had already done it in Rio 2016).
In second place was the Namibian teenager Christine Mboma, who was excluded from the 400m two weeks before the Olympics due to his naturally high levels of testosterone.
Gabrielle Thomas, the American champion, took bronze with 21.87.
The records
Griffith-Joyner’s mark of 21.34 seconds in the 200m, set in the final of the 1988 Games in Seoul, has long seemed impregnable.
But Thomas’ 21.61 run in the U.S. tests in June and Tuesday’s mark for Thompson-Herah, who became the second fastest woman of all time in the 100m on Saturday, the They were brought back into view with the help of a high-tech, carbon-reinforced track.
However, it may still be Mboma who can finally claim the record.
At just 18 years old – turned in May – Namibia had run just 200 meters before this season at 25.05. But her impressive finishing speed swallowed up Jamaican great runner Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and several others in the final 50 meters.
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Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce and 100m bronze medalist Shericka Jackson will try to get Jamaica to a better place than their silver in the 4 × 100m in Rio in Friday’s relay final.
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