Olympic medal-winning sprinter Bowie mourned after death at 32

LOS ANGELES -- Tori Bowie, a three-time Olympic medalist and 2017 100m world champion, was remembered Wednesday as a rare athletics talent and warm friend after her death at the age of 32.

Bowie anchored the US team that won 4x100m relay gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she also earned silver in the 100m and 200m bronze.

USA Track and Field and her management company confirmed her death a day after sheriff's deputies in Orlando, Florida, found her dead at her home.

"This is beyond stats and speed," retired US sprint great Justin Gatlin said on Instagram. "Tori was a beautiful human being and had a smile that made you want to smile too.

"A country girl that loved her roots. I remember sitting with Tori and listening to her stories of growing up and racing horses on foot lol. She was a fierce competitor and great teammate. A true legend that made her mark in our sport and hearts."

USATF chief executive Max Siegel said the federation was "deeply saddened" by Bowie's death.

"A talented athlete, her impact on the sport is immeasurable, and she will be greatly missed," Siegel said.

Icon Management tweeted they were "devastated to share the very sad news that Tori Bowie has passed away.

"We've lost a client, dear friend, daughter and sister," the firm said.

A cause of death was not immediately known.

The Sheriff's Office in Orange County, Florida, said deputies had found the woman identified as Bowie "when conducting a well-being check of a woman in her 30s who had not been seen or heard from in several days."

"Entry was made into the residence and a woman, tentatively identified as Frentorish "Tori" Bowie (DOB: 8/27/1990), was found dead in the home. There were no signs of foul play."

Bowie, raised by her grandmother in rural Mississippi, converted from the long jump in 2014 and became the fastest woman in the world that year.

Two years later in Rio, she prevented a Jamaican clean sweep of the 100m medals when she finished second to Elaine Thompson in a time of 10.83sec with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce third.

She won the 100m world title in London the following year and remains the lone American woman to win an Olympic or world 100m title since Carmelita Jeter in 2011.

"I'm so heartbroken over this," 2012 Olympic long jump gold medalist Brittney Reese said. "You have made a lot of us proud thank you for representing our state of Mississippi like you did."

"This hurt," tweeted Will Claye, who has represented the US internationally in triple jump and long jump. "Long live the champ, the sister, the daughter, the model and so much more!"

Sprinter Tianna Madison posted a picture of herself and Bowie on Twitter as they celebrated the United States' relay triumph in Rio.

Fraser-Pryce, the Jamaican reigning world 100m champion, tweeted: "My heart breaks for the family of Tori Bowie. A great competitor and source of light. Your energy and smile will always be with me. Rest in peace."

US Olympic athlete Lolo Jones also paid tribute to Bowie on Twitter, calling her an "incredible talent" and "A beautiful runner."

Like miracles 

Bowie received a hero's welcome in her home state after her 2016 Olympic exploits, the governor declaring November 25, 2016 "Tori Bowie Day."

Pisgah High School, in the small town of Sand Hill, displayed a sign designating "Tori Bowie Lane" on campus.

"To see things like that and like this, it's just like miracles, I guess," Bowie told the Hattiesburg American newspaper in Mississippi.

Bowie re-entered the long jump and came fourth at the 2019 world championships in Doha, her last major competition.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said in a statement he was "Shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Olympic gold medalist Tori Bowie.

"In this moment of grief, let me express my heartfelt condolences to her family and friends. The sports world has lost a true champion."

Agence France-Presse

Bolt cements his greatness

RIO DE JANEIRO - After his Olympic sprint double at the London 2012 Games, Usain Bolt declared himself a "legend". After winning both events for a third time he opted for "the greatest".

The 29-year-old Jamaican eased to 200 metre gold in 19.78 seconds in Rio on Thursday to take his tally to eight sprint Olympic golds following Sunday's 100m success in Rio.

"There's nothing else I can do really," said Bolt, who became the first athlete to win the two individual sprint titles in three consecutive Olympics.

"I've proven to the world that I'm the greatest and that is what I came here for and that's what I'm doing.

"This is what I worked for throughout the years. I worked to be the best, to be among the greats."

The Jamaican had made positive noises about an assault on his own 2009 world record of 19.19 but instead his winning time on a chill, damp night was the slowest of his seven world and Olympic 200m victories.

"I knew it was going to be hard to break the record because when I came off the corner my legs decided, 'now listen, we're not going to go any faster'.

"So I wasn't fully happy but I'm happy that I got the gold medal."

HARD WORK

Bolt, who turns 30 on Sunday, confirmed this will be his last Olympics.

If he helps Jamaica win a third successive 4x100m relay on Friday to complete the triple-triple he will tie the record nine athletics golds won by Finn Paavo Nurmi, a 1920s middle and long distance runner, and American sprinter Carl Lewis.

Bolt said he would definitely run the 100 and relay at next year's world championships in London, though fears his coach might yet try to convince him to also go for the 200 title.

If he did it would mark the 10th anniversary of the last time he lost a major international 200m race, when he finished second to American Tyson Gay in 2007. He lost in the Jamaican trials to Yohan Blake in 2012

Since then, his 200m tally is three successive Olympic titles and four consecutive world championships - another first.

"I've just proven to the world that you can do it clean, with hard work and determination," he said.

"I have made the sport exciting, made people want to see the sport, want to watch the sport, I just put the sport on a different level."

He said he wanted to remain connected to athletics but not as a coach, and was confident that he would walk away with the sport in good shape despite athletics suffering a miserable year of corruption and doping headlines.

"It looks good so far," he said. "I think the younger kids are really stepping up. (Christophe) Lemaitre stepped up tonight, Andre De Grasse has been on the right track," he said of the bronze and silver medallists.

"So I think we're in good shape and the sport has been doing better." (Editing by Patrick Johnston)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Gay mows down Bromell to book World Championships return

Tyson Gay powered past teenaged challenger Trayvon Bromell to win the US 100m crown in 9.87sec and book his first trip to the World Championships since 2009.

Gay, 32 and trying to regain the sport's summit after a one-year drugs ban, rated the triumph as perhaps the most important of his career.

"I feel like it was the toughest," he said, noting that rising talents like Bromell were raising the stakes in US sprinting.

He credited his veteran skills with getting him through the rounds with enough left to overhaul the 19-year-old Bromell, relegating him to second in 9.96.

"He got out good, it was just one of those 10-years-of-experience, dig-down moments -- I had to get him," Gay said. "It felt good though."

Mike Rodgers was third in 9.97 to grab the final berth on offer for the August 22-30 World Championships in Beijing.

They'll join teammate Justin Gatlin, who has a bye into the 100m in Beijing thanks to his 2014 Diamond League title and is focusing this week on the 200m and a possible double world championships challenge to Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt.

Gay won 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold at the 2007 World Championships and took 100m silver behind Bolt at the 2009 Worlds.

He missed the 2011 World Championships after a hip injury forced him out of trials, and withdrew from the 2013 World Championships in Moscow as he awaited the verdict in his doping case.

"Just being able to come back from a mistake, show the world that you can make up for the mistake -- it means a lot," Gay said.

America's women sprinters sent a strong signal in a women's 100m won by Tori Bowie in 10.81sec.

Bowie powered past English Gardner, who finished second in 10.86 with collegiate standout Jasmine Todd third in 10.92.

- Making a statement -
The six women under 11 seconds was a first in a US 100m final, topping the five at the 2013 championships in Des Moines.

"I for sure think we made a statement to the world today," Bowie said.

Carmelita Jeter, the 2011 world champion and three-time Olympic medallist, missed out on a Beijing berth, finishing seventh in 11.01.

The final, in a legal wind of 1.2 metres per second, followed a scintillating semi-final show in which Bowie's wind-aided 10.72sec was the top qualifying time, ahead of Jeter's 10.76 for second in the same heat.

Gardner had won her semi-final in 10.79, the fastest time in the world this year with a legal wind that was matched by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the Jamaican trials in Kingston on Friday.

There was a shocker in the women's 400m semi-finals, as reigning Olympic champion Sanya Richards-Ross failed to make the final, finishing fifth in her heat in 50.95sec.

Richards-Ross could still get a 4x400 relay berth for Beijing -- a chance to add to her tally of five world titles.

But it was a blow for the runner who missed the 2013 Worlds in Moscow with a foot injury.

Francena McCorory led the way into Saturday's final with a time of 49.85 -- shaving one-hundredth of a second off her own world-leading time of 2015.

Olympic 200m gold medallist Allyson Felix made it safely into the final as she attempts to give herself the option of contesting the 400m in Beijing, where she has a bye into the 200m.

Sharika Nelvis clocked a season-leading 12.34 to top the times in the women's 100m hurdles heats.

She improved on the 12.35 posted by Jasmin Stowers in Doha on May 15.

Keni Harrison followed Nelvis into the semi-finals with a time of 12.46, followed by Stowers (12.47), and last year's Diamond League winner in the event Dawn Harper-Nelson (12.48).

Reigning world champion Brianna Rollins also made it into the semi-finals with a time of 12.72.

Nelvis said the depth of talent in the event was a constant motivator.

"Every round I'm trying to kill it," she said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com