Thompson Herah lowers national record in marquee Diamond League 100m race
Published:Saturday | August 21, 2021 | 4:09 PMRachid Parchment/Assistant Sports Editor -
Elaine Thompson Herah continues making history.
In the biggest Women's 100m race of the year outside of the Olympic Games final earlier this month, the Tokyo champion showed that her 10.61 seconds set there was no fluke. She took victory in the Women's 100m race at the Prefontaine Classic, the Eugene leg of the Wanda Diamond League, in a Jamaican national record time of 10.54s on Saturday.
Thompson Herah obliterated a field consisting of the other medallists from Tokyo, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (silver), Shericka Jackson (bronze), and American hotshot Sha'Carri Richardson, who was running her first race since serving a doping ban for cannabis use in July.
The top three was just the same as in Tokyo, as Fraser-Pryce was second in 10.73s, and Jackson was third, equalling her personal best (PB) of 10.76s.
Richardson, whom many, including herself, had high expectations of coming into this race, finished in ninth, last place, clocking 11.14 seconds on the Hayward Field track.
American Teahna Daniels was fourth in a PB 10.83s, and the Ivory Coast's Marie-Josée Ta Lou was fifth in 10.90s. She was followed by American Javianne Oliver (PB 10.96s), Switzerland's Mujinga Kambundji (10.96s), and Jamaican teenager Briana Williams (11.09s).
Thompson Herah's new PB is once again the second fastest time in history, behind the world record of 10.49s set by late American Florence Griffith Joyner in 1988.