Women get Olympic track events off to a sizzling start

TOKYO» The look on sprinter Marie-Josée Ta Lou’s face said everything. “Wow! Wow!” she screamed, her eyes wide open and her mouth agape as she crossed the finish line first and looked over at the clock.

A gold medal? No. But the opening day of track and field at the Olympics sure was a fast ride.

Ta Lou and a pair of Jamaicans blazed through their 100-meter heats on Friday to announce to the world that even with Usain Bolt gone from the sprint scene, there’s plenty of speed to go around.

“I’m in shock, actually,” Ta Lou said after running 10.78 to set a career best in what is shaping up as a fast track in Tokyo. “But I know I’m ready.”

Reigning world champion Shelly-Ann FraserPryce ran her heat in 10.84 seconds. Her Jamaican rival, defending Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, finished in 10.82.

Combined with Ta Lou’s run, those were the fifth, sixth and seventhfastest times of the year. Seven of the 54 sprinters going through Round 1 hit a personal best. Switzerland’s national record got broken not once, but twice.

“I mean, a lot of sprinters are dominating,” Thompson-Herah said.

All that happened even though the field was missing this season’s thirdfastest runner, Sha’Carri Richardson, who is back home in the United States following a doping ban. That was a topic nobody wanted to touch.

“I don’t know how that’s going to help right now,” Nigerian runner Blessing Okagbare said. “Regardless of who’s here and who’s not here, we’re going to compete.”

Five years ago in Rio de Janeiro, only one runner, Fraser-Pryce, cracked 11 seconds in the opening round. She went on to win the bronze, behind Thompson (who has since gotten married) and American sprinter Tori Bowie.

Fraser-Pryce came in as the favorite for Saturday’s final, which is showing signs of living up to the hype. She ran a 10.63 back in June that has some thinking even Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record of 10.49 seconds, or maybe her Olympic

record of 10.62, could finally be at risk 33 years after they were set.

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Fraser-Pryce said when asked about the marks. “It’s super, super competitive. You want to make sure you focus on each round and the things you’re supposed to do.”

There were so many unknowns coming into the Olympics — namely if the year-long delay, the empty stadium or the stress of being cooped up in a hotel room in the lead-up to the Tokyo Games would hurt the athletes. At least one group — the women’s sprinters — answered all those questions with an emphatic “No.”

Another unknown: Would this be a fast track?

“Clearly,” said Daryll Neita of Britain, who ran a personal-best 10.96. “It’s going to be a very fast championship, let’s put it that way. It feels amazing.”

The first of 48 gold medals on the line over the nineday meet went to Selemon Barega of Ethiopia in the men’s 10,000 meters — a super-saturated race that left half the field sprawled out in exhaustion at the end of an 82-degree (27-degree Celsius) night with 82% humidity.