Tori, running to stand still in life SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER
London, Aug. 7: America’s Tori Bowie delivered a finish line masterclass when she timed her dip perfectly to win the women’s 100 metres World championship gold in spectacular style on Sunday, leaving Ivory Coast’s MarieJosee Ta Lou with a consolation silver.
The momentum of 26year-old Bowie’ exemplary dip sent her sprawling onto the track but by the time she recovered enough to look at the big screen she saw that she had won by one hundredth of a second and denied Ta Lou the chance to claim Ivory Coast’s first world title in any event.
Olympic champion and race favourite Elaine Thompson never got going and finished fifth, as Dutchwoman Dafne Schippers took bronze with a time of 10.96 secs.
Ta Lou appeared to have the race sewn up but fatally failed to throw herself at the line and there were moments of suspense before the result appeared on the stadium scoreboard.
The 26-year-old Bowie, who finished in 10.85 seconds, went one better than her silver medal at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro last year while Ta Lou was left to ponder another desperately unlucky finish.
“I never give up until I’m over the line,” Bowie said. “Ta Lou went away fast but she always does. It didn’t bother me and I just kept pumping my legs and arms until the finish.
“The dive doesn’t feel too good now. But that has saved me at championships in the past. I’ve got a couple of days to recover before the 200 heats so I’ll be okay.”
Ta Lou was also unlucky not to walk away with a bronze medal in Rio after being denied a place on the podium by the rarely-resorted to thousandths measurement. “I am just happy to have this medal, it is a dream come true,” she said. “I didn’t expect to be in the top three because all the girls have the power and the talent to make the podium.”
Thompson’s shock defeat came after Usain Bolt finished third in the men’s 100 metres on Saturday making it the first time since the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki that Jamaica failed to win either 100 metres race.
It was also the first sprint double for the U.S. Since Helsinki when Gatlin and Lauryn Williams were the champions. Thompson, who had looked in fine form in the heats and won on the same track in trainers to protect an injury in a Diamond League meeting one month ago, was at a loss to explain her defeat.
“I don’t know what happened. I just wanted to get a good start but they race well,” she said.
“I’ll have to watch the video back because I don’t know what went wrong. I have to give those three girls a lot of credit, so big congratulations to them. I didn’t execute my race which is a shame but I’m healthy,” she added.
— Reuters London, Aug. 7: Tori Bowie’s dream of one day seeing a sign in her home community saying ‘welcome to Sand Hill home to Tori Bowie’ looks almost certain to be realised after her 100m win at the world athletics championships.
For the sport of athletics the 26-year-old American’s victory — courtesy of her habitual hurling herself at the line which denied diminutive Ivorian Marie Josee Ta Lou the gold — will be a welcome antidote to the largely hostile reception of her compatriot and two-time dope cheat Justin Gatlin’s win in the men’s race the night before.
For Bowie — who finally tasted gold in an individual event after lesser medals in the Olympic 100 and 200m as well as the 2015 100 world final — it will also be a moment of glory shared with her paternal grandmother and her role model, Bobbie Smith.
But for Smith, Bowie says she and her sister Tamara would have been taken on by foster parents. “My mother dropped us off at a foster care centre when I was just two,” Bowie told NBC last year.
“But my grandmother ended up fighting for us and winning custody of us. We didn’t have much but she gave us character,” added Bowie, who has shortened her name from the unusual Fentorish.
Smith for her part had no hesitation in assuming her responsibilities to her discarded grand daughters even though she had five children of her own to bring up in the tiny enclave in Mississippi which is so small Bowie says there are no ‘stop lights’.
She said her own grandmother had taken in six grandchildren, including
My mother dropped us (herself and sister Tamara) off at a foster care centre when I was just two. But my grandmother ended up fighting for us and winning custody of us. We didn’t have much but she gave us character.
— TORI BOWIE Women’s 100 metres World champion
herself. “So I knew if she could take in six, I could take in two. That helped motivate me and let me know I could do it,” the 70year-old told the ClarionLedger.
Bowie, who has done some modelling and is keen to get into acting with her goal to attract the attention of gospel film legend Tyler Perry, says she and Tamara are eternally cognisant of their grandmother’s sacrifices.
— AFP