Jamaica takes gold in men's 100m at CWG, while Aussie's women's 100m gold stripped
Both the men’s 100m and the women’s 100m finals were run Thursday at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Jamaica took home the gold for the men, while Australia briefly thought they had won it- only to see
it taken away.
Men
Without notable 100m sprinters like Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell participating in the Games, Lerone Clarke of Jamaica was able to take gold in the men’s 100m with a time of 10.12 seconds. Clarke was the
only runner in the final who had recorded a time under 10 seconds in the past two years.
Mark Lewis-Francis was one of the favourites to win the men’s 100m final, but his block slipped, and the Englishman ended up with the silver, and a time of 10.20s.
“My block slipped, that's why it looks like I'm so far behind,” he said. “I had to run deep within just to get a medal. There's a lot more there.”
Aaron Armstrong took the bronze medal for Trinidad and Tobago with a time of 10.24.
Another racer who had a chance to win the 100m was Oshane Bailey of Jamaica, but the young racer sustained an injury in the semi-final, and was unable to compete in the final.
Women
On the women’s side, Sally Pearson, winner of the silver medal in the 100m hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, became the first Australian to win gold in the 100m sprint in the past 36 years. She finished
with a time of 11.28s, her best time of the season.
Or so she thought. Four hours after the fact, it was determined she’d false-started, and she was stripped of her medal.
"I was pretty scared. I thought I had false started," said Pearson at the time she won the gold. "I stayed on the track. I had no choice but to focus on what I had to do."
The confusion came in when Lara Turner false-started, and so the field was recalled. When the re-race happened though, instead of disqualifying Turner immediately they chose to let her run the race anyway.
She was later officially disqualified, but then the English team filed a protest saying Pearson had false-started as well, and the CWG board upheld it and she lost her medal.
Gold now goes to Osayemi Oludomola of Nigeria, and taking the silver is Natasha Mayers of St. Vincent and The Grenadines.
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