Photo: Elaine Thompson-Herah sped to a world leading 10.85s at the Rome Diamond League on Thursday.
Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson-Herah delivered on her promise to produce something special when she sped to a world leading 10.85s (0.2m/s) in the Women’s 100m at the Rome Diamond League on Thursday.
Thompson-Herah who isn’t usually the quickest out of the blocks, got a bullet start and that early advantage saw her cruise to victory over a quality field in the Golden Gala Stadio Olympico.
The tall Jamaican was well clear of the field by the 50m mark and the quick turnover of her long legs allowed her to power away to a three meter win over second place Aleia Hobbs of the USA (11.12s) and third place Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast (11.14s).
Thompson-Herah has been struggling with an Achilles injury for the past few seasons, but it was clear to see that she is getting back to her best from based on the performance in Rome.
The look of steely determination at the end of the race suggested that she was quite pleased with her performance which she indicated in her post-race interview.
“I leave her with the world-leading time, I am super excited. This tells me where I am at the end of this season and tells me how I can prepare for next year.”
With the Olympic Games rescheduled to next summer in Japan, the defending 100m and 200m champion will now turn her focus on preparing to battle the likes of fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Great Britain’s 200m World Champion, Dina Asher-Smith, among others at the showpiece event in Tokyo.
Meanwhile, Thompson-Herah’s MVP teammate, Bahamian Anthonique Strachan finished 9th in the race in a season’s best time of 11.42s.
The other Jamaican to compete in Rome was another MVP athlete, Julian Forte who finished 6th in the men’s 100m in 10.15s, way off his season’s best of 10.03 done at the Velocity Fest Series in Jamaica.
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