Russell wins 100m hurdles gold but Samba-Mayela wins the crowd in Paris
Masai Russell completed the USA’s clean sweep of the hurdles events at the Paris Olympics, winning the 100m hurdles title, but it was the second place of Cyréna Samba-Mayela that received the biggest cheer of the night as the French crowd was able to celebrate the host nation’s first athletics medal success of these Games.
In what was the closest of races that went to a photo finish, Russell got the verdict with 12.33 (-0.3) from the fast-finishing Frenchwoman, whose late charge from lane one very nearly landed her the top prize.
With French President Emmanuel Macron watching on, there was a tense wait for the results to be confirmed but the emotion poured down from the stands as the order was revealed, Samba-Mayela clocking 12.34 as defending champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn took bronze with 12.36.
"As you can see, I cried at the end when I saw my name on the screen," said Samba-Mayela. "It was a lot of stress, this year has been really stressful. I'm very proud to have represented France in our own home. No one believed in me but my managers, my coaches, my family and my friends. It means a lot for me."
"A year-and-a-half ago I went overseas, and I had been training in the United States with a coach from the Netherlands. I had to deal with a new culture that I didn't know anything about, speaking another language, living far away from my family and my close ones, and it was very challenging for me.
"This silver medal is like a gold medal for me, because it represents all the challenges that I had to go through this year. So, I'm really proud of this."
Nadine Visser of the Netherlands and Grace Stark of the USA both ran 12.43 for fourth and fifth respectively as Devynne Charlton finished sixth in 12.56.
More to follow
