TOKYO — The 100 meters at the Olympics is the event that turns sprinters into kings: Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, Usain Bolt.
On one of the most unusual nights the sport has ever seen, fans, experts, and even the racers themselves needed a lineup card.
The race that has long defined Olympic royalty went to a Texas-born Italian who hadn’t cracked 10 seconds until this year. He’s a 26-year-old whose best days before this came in the long jump. He’s a man even the runner in the next lane didn’t really know.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Lamont Marcell Jacobs is The World’s Fastest Man.
“I think I need four or five years to realize and understand what’s happening,” Jacobs said.
The Italian crossed the line in 9.8 seconds Sunday night to capture the first 100-meter medal ever for the country better known for its soccer prowess. Pietro Mennea won the 200 at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and Livio Berruti won that race at the 1960 Games in Rome.
Even in a contest with no clear favorites — American Ronnie Baker was a candidate and China’s Su Bingtian ran a shocking 9.83 in the semis — Jacobs came from nowhere.
He topped America’s Fred Kerley, a 400-meter runner who moved down in distance because he saw a medal chance, and Canada’s Andre DeGrasse, who adds another 100-meter bronze to the one he won Rio.
Kerley finished second in 9.84 and DeGrasse was next at 9.89.
“I really don’t know anything about him,” Kerley said of the new gold medalist. “He did a fantastic job.”
Jacobs’ path was made that much clearer because of who wasn’t in the race. The reigning world champion, Christian Coleman, is serving a ban for missed doping tests. The world leader in 2021 and the favorite to win the gold, Trayvon Bromell, didn’t make it out of the semifinals.
Bolt, who has commandeered the Olympic and every other sprint stage since 2008, is retired.
He was a sure thing in all nine Olympic sprints he ran from the Beijing Games — a stretch of dominance that redefined track and field, but also left a gaping hole in the sport when he called it a career.
“He changed athletics forever,” Jacobs said. “I’m the one who won the Olympics after him. That’s unbelievable. But drawing comparisons, I don’t think it’s the time now.”
Bolt’s world record is 9.58.
Before Sunday, Jacobs’ personal best was 9.95.
“I mean, 9.8 from the Italian guy?” DeGrasse said. “I didn’t expect that. I thought my main competition would be the Americans.”
Settled: High-jump friends elect for double gold over jump-off
TOKYO — The Italian high jumper leaped into his rival’s arms, then belly-flopped onto the hard track, rolled around a few times and screamed.
Gianmarco Tamberi was just getting warmed up, too.
It’s not every day you tie your good friend for gold.
Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar agreed to the tie Sunday at the Tokyo Games in a competition settled not by clearing the top height but through a subtle nod.
Edge definitely to Tamberi, though, for the degree of difficulty in celebrations. That’s not even counting all the hugs and kisses he delivered — or all of the people he jumped into the arms of.
He was just that excited. This was that crazy of an ending.
“I still can’t believe it happened,” Tamberi said. “Sharing with a friend is even more beautiful. … It was just magical.”
In a huddle with track officials, the athletes were given the option to settle the tie with a jump-off.
Barshim had a better idea: How about two golds?
The official said that was possible.
Barshim nodded and Tamberi instantly accepted, slapping Barshim’s hand and jumping into his arms. It would be far from his last celebration.
“For me, coming here, I know for a fact that for the performance I did, I deserve that gold,” Barshim said. “He did the same thing, so I know he deserved that gold.”
It stressed sportsmanship, too — or so they hope. It also adds to Barshim’s Olympic medal collection, pairing nicely with silver in Rio and another medal at the 2012 London Games.
“This is beyond sport,” Barshim said. “This is the message we deliver to the young generation.”
Both high jumpers were perfect until the bar was set to the Olympic-record height of 2.39 meters (7 feet, 10 inches). Each missed three times.
Funny, they actually talked about this sort of situation before. Not in great detail, though.
“We just said, ‘Imagine,’” Barshim recalled. “Today, it happened.”
What a recovery! Hassan falls, gets up and wins 1,500 heat
TOKYO — Sifan Hassan’s bid for a distance treble at the Olympics was nearly derailed Monday when the world champion tripped over another runner and fell at the final bell of her 1,500-meter heat.
Amazingly, she ended up winning the race.
Hassan tried, but failed, to hurdle over Kenya’s Edinah Jebitok, who tumbled just in front of her as runners jostled for position at the start of the final lap.
Hassan also went crashing down but rolled, quickly got back to her feet and set about chasing down the pack in an astonishing comeback.
Staring at a shock elimination, the Dutch runner sped past a couple of runners down the back straight, had reached the leading pack by the last bend, and won from Australia’s Jessica Hull and American Elinor Purrier St. Pierre after powering down the home straight.
Hassan finished in 4 minutes, 5.17 seconds to qualify for the semifinals, although she nearly paid dearly for the decision to run at the back of the field in the early stages of the race and wait for the bell to make her move. She was third-from-last at the start of the final lap and just before she fell.
Olympic champion Sunisa Lee adds bronze on uneven bars
TOKYO — Sunisa Lee came to Japan to win a gold medal. And she did. Just not the one she really, really wanted.
The 18-year-old from Minnesota is a revelation on uneven bars, where her routines are an intricate series of connections and releases completed with so much ease it looks like she’s making it all up on the fly.
Only she isn’t. Her mastery is the result of years of hard work. She’s one of the best in the world on it, and she showed it during the all-around final, where her electric set helped her edge Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and become the fifth straight American woman to claim the Olympic title.
Three days and a crush of fame later, she wasn’t quite right. Admitting she’d become distracted by the attention surrounding her triumph, connections that typically come so easily were labored during Sunday’s event finals, if they came at all. The result was a bronze-medal finish that left her disappointed.
Yes, the all-around title is great. She’ll carry it with her for the rest of her life. But the bars are her jam. Only her long-anticipated showdown with Belgium star Nina Derwael never materialized. Leading off while wearing a dazzling crystal-laden blue leotard in the eight-woman final, Lee knew in the middle of her routine it wasn’t going to be good enough to top the podium long before her 14.500 flashed across the scoreboard.
“Bars is something I really cherish,” Lee said while wearing shoes borrowed from American teammate Jade Carey because she forgot the ones that come with the U.S. uniform back at the hotel. “So when I mess it up, it really sucks.”
Even if Lee’s definition of “mess it up” is different than most others. The bronze gave her a full rainbow of Olympic bling to go with the all-around gold and the silver she claimed in the team competition.
It’s impressive by any stretch. It’s also not quite what she came here for.
“It’s really cool,” Lee said. “I just wish the bronze medal was a (balance) beam medal, not bars.”
Xander Schauffele with two clutch putts gives U.S. gold in golf
KAWAGOE, Japan — Four feet between his golf ball and the cup was all that separated Xander Schauffele from an Olympic gold medal, and he couldn’t help but let his mind wander.
For Schauffele, it would be as special as a major, the championships that have eluded him far too many times, most recently at the Masters. For his father, an Olympic medal to share after his own aspirations ended in a horrific car accident that cost him his left eye.
Schauffele bowed his head and closed his eyes to snap back into the present.
“I just reminded myself, this is just a 4-footer,” he said Sunday. “All you have to do is make it. No big deal.”
He made it. It was a big deal.
With more pressure than he needed, Schauffele got the prize he wanted in a conclusion to men’s golf so wild that nine players were still in the mix for a medal as the last three players measured their putts on the 18th green.
The putt that mattered most belonged to Schauffele, who had to lay up short of the water and rely on a wedge and a putt for par and a 4-under 67.
“I maybe put more pressure on myself wanting to go win this more than anything else,” he said. “And with my dad, he dedicated a big chunk of his life for quite some time to obtaining a medal, and that was taken away from him. … It was more than just golf for me. And I’m just really, really happy and fortunate to be sitting here.”
Rory Sabbatini set an Olympic record with a 61 — with two bogeys on his card — that nearly was good enough for a sudden-death playoff for the gold. He was more than happy to win the silver medal for Slovakia.
The Associated Press’ Pat Graham, Gerald Imray, Will Graves and Doug Ferguson contributed to this report.