Feisty Jamaican overcomes hamstring injury to seal first women’s Olympic sprint double in 28 years
Gold medallist Jamaica's Elaine Thompson celebrates after winning the womenu00c3u00a2u00c2u0080u00c2u0099s 200m final at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday
Rio de Janeiro: Elaine Thompson described herself as a 'warrior' as she overcame a hamstring injury to seal the first women's Olympic sprint double in 28 years.
Gold medallist Jamaica's Elaine Thompson celebrates after winning the women’s 200m final at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday. Pic/AFP
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Fresh from bagging 100m gold, Thompson timed a season's best of 21.78 seconds to trump Dutch favourite Dafne Schippers, who won silver in 21.88sec at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday.
The Jamaican follows in the footsteps of Veronica Campbell-Brown, 200m winner at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, and also Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who claimed 100m gold in Beijing and the London Games four years ago.
"I spent my childhood growing up watching Veronica and then Shelley-Ann," Thompson said.
But the Jamaican said she had not harboured such golden hopes coming in to the Rio Games.
"I had a hamstring injury at the national trials. But I didn't let that overcome me. I treated it the best I could, but it wasn't that bad.
"I had some rough days training but... I'm a warrior, I'm strong inside and I trained hard. It's amazing.
"It all paid off." It certainly did, as Thompson went on to win a first Olympic sprint double since American world record holder Florence Griffith Joyner's at the Seoul Games
in 1988.
Schippers devastated
Schippers was at first left devastated by the result before slowly coming around to accepting her silver after admitting she nearly didn't even make the start list.
"I came for the gold, I'm not happy with the silver," said Schippers, who won gold in last year's Beijing world championships with 21.63sec, the fourth fastest time ever run over the distance.
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