Last day of major competition brought some more hardware for the US team.
Masai Russell came from out of nowhere in a stacked field to win the Women's 100m Hurdles. She defeated the defending champion Jasmine Camacho Quinn.
Women's 100m Hurdles:
1. Masai Russell, USA 12.33 2. Cyrena Samba Mayela, France 12.34 3. Jasmine Camacho Quinn, Puerto Rico 12.36
Men's 5,000m
1. Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Norway 13:13:66 2. Ronald Kwemoi, Kenya 13:15:04 3. Grant Fisher, USA 13:15:13
The Men's High Jump ended in a tie four (well three) years ago. This time around, the competitors/ athletes wanted a tie breaker.
Men's High Jump
1. Hamish Kerr, New Zealand 2.36 2. Shelby McEwen, USA 2.36 3. Mutaz Essa Barshim, Qatar 2.34
The men's basketball team prevailed and won the gold!
Men's Basketball
1. USA 2. France 3. Serbia
Wrapping up this games was two amazing races that resulted in gold medals for the USA. There was the Men's 4x 400m relay and the Women's 4x400m relay.
Rai Benjamin anchored the relay and is the first to win a gold in the 400m hurdles and a gold in the 4x400m relay. Quincy Wilson, at the age of 16, will also get a gold for running in the prelims for this race. With their time in the finals, the men established a new Olympic record.
Men's 4x400m Relay
1. USA, 2:54:43 -- Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon, Rai Benjamin
2. Botswana, 2:54:53
3. Great Britain, 2:55:83
Now onto the women! They did not disappoint either. In the process of coming together to win gold they also set a new American record.
Women's 4x400m Relay
1. USA, 3:15:27 -- Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin Levrone, Gabby Thomas, Alexis Holmes
The games started to wind down, and the Men's 200m really started to bring the drama. Noah Lyles came to these Olympics on a mission, he wanted to win the 100 and 200 meter sprints. He had already captured gold in the 100, but the 200 is his favorite event. What Noah didn't anticipate was contracting covid in the days leading up to the final.
Men's 200m Final
1. Letsile Tebogo, Botswana 19.46
2. Kenny Bednarek, USA 19.62
3. Noah Lyles, USA 19.70
Women's Long Jump Final
1. Tara Davis Woodhall, USA 7.10
2. Malaika Mihambo, Germany 6.98
3. Jasmine Moore, USA 6.96
Who could forget Tara Davis Woodhall winning gold. She leapt into her husband's arms as he told her that she was an Olympic Champion. It was such an expression of love and admiration between the Olympian and Paralympian.
Women's 400m Hurdles
1. Sydney McLaughlin Levrone, USA 50.37 2. Anna Cockrell, USA 51.87
3. Femke Bol, Netherlands 52.15
One of my favorite races to watch of this. games was anything that Sydney McLaughlin Levrone ran in. There are many things to admire about her. She is hard working, talented, and she leans heavily on her faith in God and speaks openly about it. Every time she runs she seems to break world record after world record, just like she did here. She started the 400m and no one was able to catch her. She came in and defended her Olympic title, she's hasn't lost this race since 2019.
For years now, Grant Holloway has been considered the top men's hurdler at the 110m distance. However, the gold medal alluded him in Tokyo. He came in second to Hansle Parchment from Jamaica. The lose was hard on Holloway who says he is a sore loser. He made it his mission to never come in second again if he could help it. In this race, no one was close to Holloway at the finish line.
Men's 110m Hurdles
1. Grant Holloway, USA 12.99
2. Daniel Roberts, USA 13.09
3. Rasheed Broadbell, Jamaica 13.09
8.9.24 Friday:
Friday featured a stunning turn of events for the USA relay teams. The US Women's Relay Team came back in stunning fashion to capture gold in the 4x100. However, the men were disqualified for passing the baton outside of the approved zone. This race seems to be continuing to haunt them.
Rai Benjamin secured the one thing that had been alluding these past four years, Olympic gold. He closed a chapter in a powerful book preventing Karsten Warholm of Norway from repeating in this event. He was attempting to be the first since 1960 to do it. Benjamin had other ideas however, he knew he would close strong in the last 200 meters and he did.
