Last leap is golden for American
Long jumper Henderson reclaims lead late while U.S. runners still seek first Rio victory
RIO DE JANEIRO — Like the hang gliders that soar over postcard-perfect beaches here, Jeff Henderson launched and seemed to float forever. He had plenty of time to take in the scenery, the fans, his slack-jawed opponents, the scoreboard that would soon need updating.
Whenthe 27-year old American long jumper finally landed, Henderson had flown 27 feet, 6 inches and had leap-frogged his foes, locking up an Olympic gold medal on his final jump Saturday.
“I knew it,” Henderson said. “I knew it was far. ‘OK, this is over.’ I knew I won the competition after that jump.”
Henderson’s win capped a night of flight and speed at Olympic Stadium. Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson blewthroughthewomen’s100-me- ter field in a time of 10.71 seconds to edge out silver medalist American Tori Bowie by 0.12 seconds.
“First time being here, and we wona silver. … I’m not giving up on me having a chance to win a gold medal. I started running the 100 meter in 2014, so I’m right at two years in. By next time around, I’ll be a real professional,” Bowie said with a laugh. A close call
The U.S. team has yet to reach the top of the podium on the track but already has secured golds in two field events through two days of competition.
Henderson had led the men’s long jump competition early but was passed in the fifth round by South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga. Henderson regained his lead on his sixth and final jump. The gold wasn’t quite locked up yet, though.
On the night’s final jump, Hen- derson’s American teammate, 22-year-old Jarrion Lawson, appeared to leap his way to the top spot on the podium. He sprung off the board and kept going and going. When his feet splashed the sand, it looked like he’d overtaken Henderson. But a review of the jump showed that his left hand touched down, costing him any shot at the podium. Lawson finished in fourth place, 1½ inches away from a medal.
In one of the night’s marquee events, 10,000 meters wasn’t enough for Great Britain’s Mo Farah. After defending his Olympic title, he took the Union Jack for a victory lap around the track. Despite falling near the race’s midpoint, Farah bounced back up and kept pace with the leaders.
The 33-year-old took the lead to stay on the final turn and sprinted across the finish line, posting a time of 27:05.17.
Farah’s Oregon-based training partner Galen Rupp, who took silver in the race four years earlier, was among the leaders much of the way but didn’t have an extra kick for the final lap and finished fifth. His time of 27:08.92 marked his best run of the year. Ex-UT star comes through
Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium beat defending champion Jessica Ennis-Hill of Britain to win a heptathlon competition that went down to a matter of seconds in the last event.
Ennis-Hill won the 800 in a season-best time of 2 minutes, 9.07 seconds, but it wasn’t by quite enough to overtake Thiam, who had a 142-point lead going into the last of seven disciplines and finished in 2:16.54.
Late Friday, American Michelle Carter, a former University of Texas track star, won the country’s first medal since 1960 in women’s shot put — and a gold one, at that — using her last throw of the night to beat two-time defending champion Valerie Adams of NewZealand.