Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson completes sprint double, wins women’s 200m gold

Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson won Olympic gold in the 200m to complete a sprint double in Rio.

Thompson, 24, clocked 21.78 seconds to beat Netherlands’ world champion Dafne Schippers by 0.13sec and add the 200m title to the gold she won in the 100m.

USA’s Tori Bowie took bronze in 22.15, while Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, 20, ran 22.31 to finish fifth.

“It is a very special and welcoming feeling for me. I think my light has shined,” Thompson told BBC Sport.

“Watching Veronica Campbell-Brown, Shelly-Ann Fraser- Pryce and then putting my name there is an amazing feeling.”

Campbell-Brown won the Olympic 200m title at Athens 2004 and retained it in Beijing 2008, while Fraser-Pryce took 100m gold at both Beijing and London 2012.

In all, Jamaica have won 10 of the past 11 Olympic golds in the 100m and 200m, with Usain Bolt a strong favourite to extend that record in yesterday’s men’s 200m final (02:30 BST, Friday).

Thompson is the first woman to complete the Olympic sprint double since Florence Griffiths-Joyner at the 1988 Seoul Games.

Michael Johnson said that he was “very impressed” with Dina Asher-Smith’s debut Olympic performance

Asher-Smith ran from lane two in her first Olympic final – posting her fastest time of the year but 0.24secs under her personal best.

“I am really happy, I think I still could have done a bit better but I can’t be disappointed with that,” she said.

“It is a learning curve and hopefully I’ll have more world championships and Olympics to get it right.”

Schippers ‘not happy with silver.’

Schippers, 24, has a personal best of 21.63, making her the fastest European in history and one of the five quickest women of all time.

However, she could not quite get the better of Thompson, who pulled away from her in the final 50 metres.

“I came for gold, I was in good form,” she said.

“My times were OK but they were not strong enough. I haven’t made my mind up about what happened. I’m not happy with the silver.”