Jamaica reaps gold in track and field sprint events

Jamaica has once again dominated the track and field sprint event with a gold in the 4x100m relay at this year’s Tokyo Olympics.

On Friday, two-time Olympian Elaine Thompson-Herah ran the second leg on Jamaica’s gold medal-winning women’s 4x100m relay team along with teammates Briana Williams, Shericka Jackson and now eight-time Olympic medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

The quartet clocked in the single lap race in 41.02, the second-fastest time in history. The United States reached the finish line 0.43 later to vie for silver, followed by Great Britain for bronze in 41.88.

It was the first time since 2004 that the Jamaican women won the 4x100m relays.

Prior the 4x100m relay, Thompson-Herah also went on to win the women’s 200m final on Tuesday, making her the first ever woman to win the 100m and 200m sprint double at two consecutive Olympic Games.

“Honestly, I’m shaking right now […] I’m speechless,” Thompson-Herah said in an exclusive interview with the CNN’s Coy Wire and Sana Noor Haq. “I have to just continue to have that focus. I don’t want to drain my energy off getting too excited for the first medal […] I have goosebumps.”

In 2016, Thompson-Herah won a double gold in the 100m and 200m at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The 29-year-old Olympian has been battling lower leg and Achilles injuries over the last few years.

“Thompson-Herah became just the fifth woman to win at least three track and field gold medals in the same Olympic and the first to do it since American Allyson Felix at the London 2012 Olympics. No woman had completed the triple in the sprints since Florence Griffith-Joyner did so at Seoul 1988,” writes Eric Goodman of NBC Olympics.

As of writing, Jamaica has obtained eight medals, four of them are gold. The medals are extra special because the victories coincided with the celebration of Jamaica’s 59th Independence Day.