by Stuart Weir
Elaine Thompson, photo by Getty/British Athletics
Elaine Thompson, photo by Getty/British Athletics
Elaine Thompson-Herah is the world leader at 100 meters. In 2020, Elaine shows that she is on the way back, and we will have to wait and see in 2021 what Elaine can do. Stuart Weir put this one together. Stuart gets it. He has also covered this season with me, giving our readers a chance to appreciate the pandemic season.
Elaine Thompson-Herah
Last weekend Brigid Kosgei made a claim to be athlete of the year in her 2 hour 18 minute and 58 second victory in the Virgin Money London Marathon. Elaine Thompson-Herah took just 10.85 seconds to lay her claim. That was her 100m time at the Golden Gala in Rome on 17 September. She commented: “I leave here with the world leading time, I’m super excited. This tells me where I am at the end of this season, and tells me how I can prepare for next year. This year required more adjusting, and my goal was to push back and to motivate myself. I am a double Olympic champion, so I want to be in my top form for next season. We had some competitions in Jamaica, but obviously the field was not as strong as it is here”.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, photo by Getty/ British Athletics
Prior to Rome she had run five 100m races and three 200m races in Jamaica with bests of 10.88 and 22.19 as well as a 10.73 with an illegal wind. She finished her season with 10.87 at Doha, commenting: “Preparations for the Olympics is the next on my agenda and it begins in earnest”. She finished the season with the first and third equal fastest times in the world this year. That Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who did not run outside Jamaica this year, has the second and third-equal times adds to the intrigue.
Since her double in Rio, Thompson-Herah has struggled with injury – achilles and hamstring problems. She was fourth in the 2019 World Championship 100m in 10.93 and fifth in the 2017 World Championships. In London 2017 her time in the final was 10.98 but she had run 10.84 – the fastest time in the championship – in the semi- final.
Like most Jamaican athletes, she started running when she was in kindergarten then primary school going into high school and eventually becoming professional. She participated in the famous Jamaican schools championships but surprisingly, perhaps, “was not one of those athletes who was coming first. I was one of those at the back of the field. I wasn’t a great track and field athlete in high school.”
She won the 100 and 200 in the 2016 Olympics, surprising everyone, including herself: “Even though I won the national trials, I was doubtful when I went to Rio because I had a hamstring injury. As I had not raced since the trials I didn’t know where I was or how fit I was going into the Olympics. I had questions in my mind: ‘how fit am I? How well I am I going to do?’ All that was going round in my head.
“When I ran the first round I was asking ‘am I ready?’ In the semifinal I had a decent time [10.88] and in the final I wasn’t nervous. I was happy and excited to run but still doubtful about what I could achieve. At the finish across the line first and I didn’t expect that. I suppose the work that I’d put in enabled me to get through the rounds and get the gold in 10.71.
“It was my first time and doubling up. It was hard because you only have one day to rest. In the 100 you have the heats on one day and then the semi-final and final on the same night with about an hour and a half in between so that was not a problem. With the 200 you’re racing every day but I wouldn’t call it exhausting. My first experience of doubling up wasn’t bad at all”.
I asked her which event she preferred and her answer was equivocal: “I prefer the 100 but everyone thinks I’m better at 200! But I think the shorter one is better for me but I do need to work on my start”.
It would be a surprise to no one if the Olympic 100m final comes down to a shoot-out between two Jamaicans who happen to be the world and Olympic champions. It is mouth-watering prospect.
