Rio Olympics 2016, Athletics: Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin and Yohan Blake qualify for 100m final
The qualification criteria in the semi-finals required athletes to finish in the top two to automatically qualify for the final. Apart from those six athletes, the next two fastest athletes also qualified for the final.
The first semi-final saw Hassan Taftian, Jimmy Vicaut, Nickel Ashmeade, Akani Simbine, Xie Zhenye, Ben Youssef, Bracy Marvin and Jak Ali Harvey. And it was the Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut who ran the fastest with a time of 9.95 seconds.
Vicaut had a poor performance in the heats and had qualified as one of the fastest losers. But he was one of the fastest in 2016 and rose to the occasion in the semis to ease into the finals. Ivory Coast’s Ben Youssef Meite finished second with a time of 9.97 seconds.
Defending champion and two-time gold medalist Usain Bolt was in the second semi-final and he soaked in the applause from the crowd as his name was announced. While the rest of the athletes tried to maintain their composure, Bolt was very relaxed – just as he always is on the big stage.
His race had a false start, though. Andrew Fisher of Bahrain, previously of Jamaica, sadly reacted a little too soon and was immediately disqualified. After a brief hiccup, the athletes were set to go again. This time, all seven athletes started without any issue and Bolt was actually behind at the start – his Achilles heel.
But he soon found his stride and by the halfway mark he was in the lead. By 70m, he was looking around to see his competition way behind by 100m standards and eased up before the finish line having already got the job done. He qualified with a time of 9.86 seconds while Canada’s Andre De Grasse also qualified with a time of 9.92 seconds.
2012 silver and bronze medalists, Yohan Blake of Jamaica and Justin Gatlin of USA, were paired in the third semi-final. And Gatlin showed that he meant business, taking the lead right from the start to lead the race all the way to the finish.
Gatlin finished with a time of 9.94 seconds to reach the final while Blake finished second, albeit without a sub-10 time of 10.01 seconds. He was run close by France’s Christophe Lemaitre who ran 10.07.
| # | Country | Athlete | Semi-Final | Time (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamaica | Usain Bolt | 2 | 9.86 |
| 2 | Canada | Andre De Grasse | 2 | 9.92 |
| 3 | USA | Justin Gatlin | 3 | 9.94 |
| 4 | France | Jimmy Vicaut | 1 | 9.95 |
| 5 | Ivory Coast | Ben Youssef Meite | 1 | 9.97 |
| 6 | South Africa | Akani Simbine | 1 | 9.98 |
| 7 | Jamaica | Yohan Blake | 3 | 10.01 |
| 7 | USA | Trayvon Bromell | 2 | 10.01 |