(Athletics News): Five time Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson Herah ran a record 10.54 seconds in the Women’s 100m at the Eugene Diamond League competition on Saturday. This is the second fastest time in the history of Women’s 100m, Florence Griffith Joyner is on top with a timing of 10.49 seconds and it was set in 1988 in Indianapolis. Elaine broke the Olympic record in the 100m this year at the Tokyo Olympics with a timing of 10.61, breaking Florence's timing of 10.62. Elaine also ran the second fastest time in the history of Women’s 200m in Tokyo with a timing of 21.53, the fastest being Florence with a record of 21.34 seconds. Only Florence has better timings than Elaine in the 100m and 200m.

The 100m is one of the most followed events in the athletic world since the winner is known as the fastest runner in the world. It requires intense focus and speed since it gets over in a matter of a few seconds. There can be no setbacks as it is very difficult to make a comeback, sprinters usually are young athletes and only a handful of them have had a long career. The 200m on the other hand requires endurance and technique as athletes have to run in the curve while maintaining their speed. Only a few athletes have been able to conquer both the events as they require different abilities.

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Elaine is the first woman to win both the 100m and 200m in back to back Olympics. She won the double in Rio De Janeiro in 2016 and in Tokyo 2020. She could become the second athlete after Usain Bolt to win the 100m and 200m thrice at the Olympics. She has the best possibility of breaking the world records in 100m and 200m, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has come the closest to Elaine in the 100m, but Elaine is in a competition of her own, since the start of this year she has the two fastest timings in the 100m and the fastest and third fastest timing in the 200m. Jamaica has been dominating the 100m since the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the women have continued bringing laurels to the country.

Since the 11 second barrier was broken by Marlies Göhr in the Women’s 100m in 1977, there were major changes until the next 10 years till 1988. After that the closest was in 2009 when Carmelita Jeter ran a 10.64, since then, Elaine Thompson is the closest and has improved her timing in every race this year. We could see a world record after 33 years if Elaine can improve in the next few races and become the greatest sprinter ever. She is already regarded as one of the greatest sprinters after her Tokyo victory.