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RIO DE JANEIRO — Elaine Thompson inherited the mantle of Olympic 100 meters champion from fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Saturday but Mo Farah simply refused to relinquish his 10,000m crown as the Briton recovered from a fall to retain his title.
Fraser-Pryce, who took bronze in a fantastic final, became the third athlete in two days to discover why no woman has ever managed to win three individual athletics titles in a row, after Ethiopian 10,000m runner Tirunesh Dibaba and New Zealand shot-putter Valerie Adams both came up short Friday.
Jessica Ennis-Hill also failed in her bid to defend her heptathlon title, pipped to gold by 21-year-old Belgian student Nafissatou Thiam, who said she had only dreamt of a top-eight finish prior to the event.
Ennis-Hill finished just 35 points adrift of Thiam’s winning total of 6,810 points, with Canada’s Brianne Thiesen-Eaton claiming bronze (6,653).
Farah, however, just does not know how to lose when it comes to the big races.
The Briton has won the 10,000m in the last two world championships and the 5,000 in the last three.
He has now won back-to-back Olympic 10,000m golds and is seeking to retain the 5,000m too, hoping to emulate Finn Lasse Viren, the only man to defend both titles in 1976 and who also fell while winning the longer race in 1972. Every one of Farah’s victories have come in virtually the same way as he sits in behind a group of Ethiopians and Kenyans before blasting out an unstoppable final lap.
There was a twist Saturday, however, as he tripped and fell early in the race when he tangled with his American training partner Galen Rupp with 16 laps remaining.
He bounced up quickly though and with the East Africans failing to test him by pushing the pace, there was an air of inevitability about the outcome as he swept past Kenya’s Paul Tanui and roared home. Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola got bronze.
“It’s hard mentally when you go down,” a tearful Farah admitted.
“I got emotional because you put so much work in and in one moment it’s gone,” Farah added. “That one moment could be it.”
The 100m final initially appeared impossible to call after all eight women qualified in sub-11 second times but as it turned out, Thompson won comfortably in 10.71 after hitting the front at halfway.
America Tori Bowie took silver in 10.83 while Fraser-Pryce, running with an injury, edged out Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou by seven thousandths of a second.
“I’m very excited, I’m really happy, Jamaica has so many talented sprinters and to be only the second Olympic champion I’m really happy about that,” Thompson said.
Four years ago in London, Britain celebrated a “Super Saturday” as Farah, Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford claimed gold but it was a medal of each hue this time as Rutherford had to settle for bronze in an edge-of-the seat long jump competition.
American Jeff Henderson continued America’s proud tradition in the event when he flew 8.38 meters on his final jump, edging out South African Luvo Manyonga.
Usain Bolt began his bid for a “triple-triple” with a 10.07 100m heat — with arch rival Justin Gatlin the fastest qualifier in 10.01.
There was last-round drama in the discus as Germany’s Christophe Harting produced 68.37m with the penultimate throw to snatch the gold from Pole Piotr Malachowski and match his brother Robert’s success from four years ago.
At the velodrome, Britain’s Katie Archibald, Laura Trott, Elinor Barker and Joanna Rowsell-Shand smashed the women’s team pursuit world record for the third time in 48 hours to take gold, beating world champion US to defend their title.
The Netherlands’ Elis Ligtlee pulled off a shock when she won the women’s keirin, beating Britain’s Becky James with Australian legend Anna Meares third.
Belarus’ Uladzislau Hancharou shocked reigning Olympic champion Dong Dong of China to snatch men’s trampoline gymnastics gold.
The three-time world champion — 2009, 2010, 2013 — had to settle for silver with China’s reigning world champion Gao Li dumped into bronze.
Canada’s Rosie MacLennan became the first trampoline gymnast to win back-to-back Olympic titles by winning women’s gold Friday.
