Keni Harrison, 100-meter hurdler, couldn’t be happier about her silver medal this year. Americans are used to having gold in this event.
Perhaps they were just looking for the wrong thing.
Jasmine Camacho Quinn is a South Carolina native who went to college in Kentucky. She trains in Florida and will be taking the hurdles gold to Puerto Rico, her mother. This comes after an upset Monday that saw the Americans keep out of the win column. Olympic track was Day 4.
“This is what I wanted for this season. Camacho-Quinn stated that she wanted to become a gold medalist.
Harrison was able to catch her early, and she finished in 12.37 seconds. This is a huge win in such a short race. Megan Tapper from Jamaica was third.
Puerto Rico, an American territory, competes at the Olympics under its own flag. It now has one more track medal than the deepest Olympic team, which won 13 golds in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.
Camacho-Quinn was 12.38 seconds when she arrived at the Olympics. Camacho-Quinn ran an Olympic record 12.26 in the semifinals, which ranks fourth on the all time list.
John Coghlan (coach) is partly responsible for this improvement. He began working with CamachoQuinn last Dec., and studied the film to see her potential.
Coghlan stated, “I was like: ‘If she could fix X,Y, and Z, then she can run really fast.”
She is now an Olympic champion.
Harrison holds the world record for 12.2 seconds, with silver.
It was not an easy process to get to the mark, which was set in 2016.
Harrison was sixth in Olympic trials, and she was not allowed to go to Rio. This is the event that is considered to be the most competitive. She returned home to witness the Americans win the podium after setting the world record in London a few weeks later.
Harrison felt that the silver was a win, given this fact.
She said, “To miss out on Rio, then to come to my first Olympics, and get a medal, of course, everybody wants the gold. But I got myself back here on this stage and I’m getting more and better.”
Despite the fact that none of the Americans from 2016’s sweep — Nia Ali, Brianna Rollins and Kristi Castlin — were in Tokyo, this felt like an opportunity for the U.S.A to break their string of no gold medals in Japan.
After Lolo Jones’ buildup, the Americans won three of the four last women’s 100-meter hurdles events at the Games. Dawn Harper was the shocker in 2008 and the American team had won the other two.
This speaks to the American difficulties.
It turns out that Puerto Rico is also tapping into this talent.
Camacho-Quinn’s brother Robert plays in the NFL. Camacho said that her college coaches advised her to go to the U.S. Olympic trials in 2016. This was not to win a spot, but to experience the competition against professional athletes.
She discovered that she was eligible to run for Puerto Rico. This is the territory she had deep roots due to her mother’s family.
She said, “I didn’t understand track like this.” “I just ran out there.”
All the way to Puerto Rican. So, a star was born.
In 2016, she was running in Rio when she jumped the ninth hurdle to send herself sprawling to the deck. She tries to forget about it.
She said, “Somebody’s always, ‘Oh, I’m sorry for what happened.’” “I feel like, ‘I need you’all to let this go.’
She continued on and it now appears that the U.S. team will need to do some recalibrating. Although there’s still plenty of time — only 10 of 48 events were completed after Monday’s session — it is a team that opens every Olympics with great hopes but has not won any gold medals.
Ju’Vaughn Harrison was fifth in the long jump after leaving the track on Sunday night. He also finished seventh in the high jump.
Miltiadis of Greece won the long jump gold with two bailed-up Cuban jumpers Juan Miguel Echevarria, and Maykel Masso taking silver and bronze, even though they combined to pass on five out of twelve attempts.
The U.S. was eliminated from the women’s 100 earlier in the week. It won silver (Fred Kerley), in the men’s 100. Trayvon Bromell was favored for the gold, but didn’t qualify for it. After sitting Allyson Felix, who helped the U.S. win the world championships two year ago, it took bronze in the mixed 4×400.
In Monday night’s session, the U.S. did not have clear favorites. There were finals at the steeplechase and women’s discus, and 5,000m.
That 5,000-meter race featured Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands. Hassan ran in a 1,500 meter heat during the morning session, and she fell. She climbed back up to finish the race and win it.