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

Elaine Thompson-Herah broke Florence Griffith Joyner’s 33-year-old Olympic record in the women’s 100 meters

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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