American Tori Bowie gets gold as Jamaica fails to medal in the 100 metres final at world championships
Elaine Thompson finishes fifth in stunning final
The American sprinter took a mighty tumble. Nobody, however, has fallen harder than Jamaica so far at this year’s world championships.
The evening after Usain Bolt’s improbable loss to a pair of US runners, the world’s best sprint island watched the red, white and blue paraded around the track once again at its expense.
Tori Bowie leaned over the line for her 100-metre victory, then stumbled and crashed down to the track to put the exclamation point on the second straight sprint shock of the meet. Her .01-second victory Sunday over Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast was a photo-finish thriller. The fact that the defending Olympic champion and the most dominant female sprinter of 2017, Elaine Thompson of Jamaica, finished fifth was every bit as stunning.
“The past few years, Jamaica has dominated,” Bowie said. “We’ve had no harsh feelings toward them, no negative thoughts. We’ve been extremely focused on ourselves. Just trying to get where they’re at.”
Bowie’s time, 10.85 seconds, was nothing spectacular. Her race, though, was something to behold.
She trailed Ta Lou by two paces as they headed into the last 20 metres but Bowie just kept charging. She caught Ta Lou at the end, and Bowie’s lean at the line was textbook. The photo finish actually shows Ta Lou’s foot ahead of Bowie’s, but Bowie beats her where it counts – her torso is over the line a fraction of an inch ahead of Ta Lou’s.
