Miller wins gold medal after diving over finish line

Running in lane 4, while Miller was a bit ahead, on the outside, lane 7.

Miller won the sprint with a time of 49.44 seconds over Felix, who finished with a time of 49.51 seconds.

Some have called Miller’s dive unfair while others think Felix was stripped of her chance at a Olympic gold. What was in my mind was I had to get a gold medal. “Next you know, I was on the ground”.

American hurdler Ryan Wilson made another important point about Shaunae Miller’s win. Felix wasn’t in top shape at the USA trials in July, failing to finish among the top three in the 200 meters. I was laying on the ground, the results hadn’t came out yet. Francis finished fifth in 50.41.

Congrats to both Felix and Miller!

How hard must it be for an athlete to overcome an ankle injury, as Felix did, to finally run her best race of the year, only to still lose?

Why is the photo finish in the women’s 400 meters race, won by Shaunae Miller against a charging Allyson Felix, the best moment of the Olympic games so far? “I didn’t have more to give”.

She pipped Allyson Felix from the United States, who mounted a surge in the final 200m to finish neck-and-neck with Ms Miller.

The drama reminded older Kiwi track and field fans of New Zealander Sylvia Potts’ collapse metres from the line with a 1500m gold medal in her sights at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. As runners, they were an even match; something had to give. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow”. That year, she only competed in the qualifying round. They finished in the opposite order at the world championships in Beijing a year ago.

This is a step in the right direction.

“Hopefully that’s an accomplishment I’ll be able to look back on and take it all in”, Felix said. “I felt like it got a little bit away from me”.

The diving competition at the Rio Olympics was in full swing on Monday. “I’ve never done it before”. Here I am now.

In the men’s 800 final, Kenyan David Rudisha repeated as Olympic gold medalist with a winning time of 1:42.15.

She won the 200 in London four years ago. That wasn’t a surprise, either.