Thompson and Jackson win Jamaican Olympic trials 100-meter gold.
Jamaica’s Kingston (AFP) – At the Jamaican Olympic athletics trials on Friday, Kishane Thompson won the men’s 100-meter race in 9.77 seconds, which is the fastest time recorded globally this year. Shericka Jackson dominated the women’s 100-meter final.
With a wind speed of 0.9 meters per second, Thompson won in Kingston, with Oblique Seville coming in second in 9.82 and Ackeem Blake third in 9.92, securing their spots in the Paris Olympics.
The 22-year-old Thompson outperformed Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, who set the previous record two weeks ago in Nairobi with a 9.79.
Thompson, who hasn’t raced this season, dominated the Jamaican trials, posting times of 9.82 in the heats on Thursday and 9.84 in the semi-finals earlier on Friday.
Despite a 9.86 qualifying run, Thompson withdrew from the World Championship qualifying meet prior to the semi-finals last year. However, he went on to run 9.85 at a Diamond League meet in Xiamen and then 9.87 in Eugene.
Jackson, who finished third in the 100 meters at the Tokyo Olympics and was a two-time world champion in the 200 meters, won the women’s 100 meters in 10.84 seconds with a wind speed of -0.3 meters per second.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, the current Olympic champion and gold medallist in the 100 and 200 meters in the Rio and Tokyo Games, has been sidelined by an injury.
Tia Clayton, 19, finished as the final runner-up in 10.90, while Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, 37, finished third in 10.94, earning her a trip to Paris.
Fraser-Pryce, the Olympic 100-meter champion from 2008 and 2012, ran 10.91 in the semifinals and easily secured her place for France in the run.
