Thompson-Herah breaks Flo Jo's Olympic record in women's 100

Tokyo Olympics Athletics (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Tokyo Olympics Athletics (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Elaine Thompson-Herah broke Florence Griffith Joyner's 33-year-old Olympic record in the women's 100 meters, crossing the line in 10.61 seconds Saturday to defend her title and lead a Jamaican sweep of the medals.

Griffith Joyner set the old record of 10.62 at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Thompson-Herah beat her top rival, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce by .13 seconds. Shericka Jackson, who moved to the shorter sprints for the Tokyo Olympics, won bronze.

This had been shaping up as a fast race for days, if not months. In June, Fraser-Pryce ran the fourth-fastest time in history at 10.63 seconds.

And when the sprinters arrived in Japan they discovered a fast track at Olympic Stadium

In the semifinals earlier, the Jamaicans all cracked 10.8 to get on the list of the 10 best times in Olympic history.

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