USA’s Tori Bowie stormed to World Championships 100m gold from Marie-Josee Ta Lou and Dafne Schippers as Olympic champion Elaine Thompson was left empty-handed.
A night after American Justin Gatlin shocked Usain Bolt in the men’s final, Bowie went one better than a year ago in Rio as her perfect dip on the line nicked the race from Ta Lou by one-hundredth of a second.
Jamaican favourite Thompson, who had looked peerless in winning her semi-final earlier in the evening, had a start even worse than Bolt’s and appeared to lose her stride twice as she faded into fifth.
Ivory Coast’s Ta Lou initially thought she had it won, but her personal best of 10.86 was good enough only for silver, the Netherlands’ Schippers coming through for bronze in 10.96.
Having won gold in both the 100m and 200m in Rio, Thompson came to London Stadium as the fastest woman in the world in 2017.
Her defeat is thus arguably even a bigger shock than Bolt’s, capping a hugely disappointing two days for Jamaica, the dominant force in sprinting over the past nine years.
“I feel the hard work has finally paid off,” Bowie told BBC Sport. “I couldn’t be more happy. It hasn’t even sunk in. Am I really the world champion?”
And on falling over after dipping at the line, she said: “I’m a bit bit sore but I’m pretty sure it is nothing major. Most championships I’ve won with dips so why not dip tonight.”
Bolt’s race had been lost with his reaction time from the blocks of 0.183 seconds, the slowest in the field.
And Thompson made exactly the same mistake, getting out in a horrible 0.2 seconds, and she would never recover.
Ta Lou, streaking away in lane four, left Michelle-Lee Ahye in three and Rosangela Santos on her right behind.
Had she lent into the line the title would have been hers. But Bowie, coming through late on the outside just as Gatlin had 24 hours, threw herself into the final few metres, and while the effort sent her tumbling to the track it proved critical.
Thompson does not even have the consolation of the 200m to aim for, her bemusement afterwards shared by the thousands of Jamaican supporters in the stadium who had come expecting a measure of payback for Bolt’s great disappointment.
BBC
