AMERICAN GABBY Thomas stormed to a brilliant victory in the women’s Olympic 200m in Paris on Tuesday to clinch the first major title of her career.
Thomas clocked 21.83sec to win ahead of St. Lucia’s new 100m champion Julien Alfred, who timed 22.08sec. Thomas’ teammate Brittany Brown claimed bronze in 22.20sec.
Thomas, 27, a bronze medallist at the Tokyo Games three years ago, is the first American woman to win an Olympic short sprint title since childhood idol Allyson Felix won the 200m at the 2012 London Games.
St. Lucia’s Alfred had been hoping to clinch an Olympic sprint double after her dazzling win in the 100m on Saturday.
But Thomas, the fastest woman in the world this year over this distance, was in no mood to let her date with destiny slip.
The Harvard-educated sprinter exploded out of the blocks and ran a superb bend to open up a sizeable lead coming into the home straight.
The American’s strength and finishing power never looked like waning as she powered over the line to claim a deserved gold.
There was more hammer throw joy for Canada as world champion Camryn Rogers won the women’s competition with 76.97 metres.
Her victory came just 48 hours after teammate and fellow world champ Ethan Katzberg secured the men’s hammer gold. The pair embraced trackside, Rogers draped in a Canadian flag.
There was no surprise in the men’s long jump as multiple global medallist Miltiadis Tentoglou retained the men’s Olympic long jump title.
Tentoglou managed a best of 8.48 metres for his second gold, having also won at the Tokyo Games three years ago.
Jamaica’s Wayne Pinnock took silver with 8.36m while Italy’s Mattia Furlani claimed bronze, just 2cm adrift.
There was a second Olympic record on the night as Bahrain’s world champion Winfred Yavi won the women’s 3000m steeplechase in 8min 52.76sec.
Uganda’s defending champion Peruth Chemutai took silver in a national record of 8:53.34 and Kenya’s Faith Cherotich claimed bronze in 8:55.15.
American reigning champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol of the Netherlands set up a mouth-watering final in the women’s 400m hurdles.
The in-form pair each won their semi-finals to advance to the final scheduled for 1925 GMT on Thursday.
It also means Bol remains on course in her audacious bid for treble gold, having already anchored the Dutch quartet to 4x400m mixed relay glory. Her third event will be the women’s 4x400m relay.
