Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson sends Olympic warning with 9.77sec 100m

Jamaica’s newest 100m champion sent a message after his victory, insisting he was slowing down towards the end of a race in which he ran the fastest time in the world in two years.

Kishane Thompson won Jamaica’s 100m national championship in 9.77 seconds on Friday night, setting himself up as a threat to join his country’s greatest sprinter, Usain Bolt, as an Olympic champion next month.

“My coach instructed me to just run the first 60 [metres], nothing more,” the 22-year-old Thompson said after his victory. “After that I should just shut it down. If I came in second or third, I make the team. The goal wasn’t to do anything, just to run a 70 or 60 and see where I am at.”

Thompson posted a time of 9.82 in his opening heat on Thursday night. The Jamaican championships are the first meet he has competed in since November 2023.

Thompson beat Oblique Seville, a semi-finalist at the Tokyo Olympics who notched a win over USA contender Noah Lyles earlier this year.

Thompson’s time of 9.77 was the fastest since American Fred Kerley won the 2022 world championships in 9.76. Thompson is now the fourth-fastest Jamaican in history, behind Bolt, Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell.

“I am not sure how fast I can go, but the time did not surprise me tonight,” he said.

Bolt’s world record has stood at 9.58 since 2009.

Shericka Jackson won the women’s 100m title, and will be joined at the Olympics by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who finished third in the race and will head to her fifth and final Games.

Fraser-Pryce finished second and Jackson third at the Tokyo Games behind two-time defending Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, who is injured this year.

Jackson’s time of 10.84 was 0.06sec faster than 19-year-old Tia Clayton, who will make her Olympic debut. Fraser-Pryce won the 2008 and 2012 Olympic titles at 100m. Jackson is the reigning world champion at 200m.