Fraser completes Jamaican 100 sweep

Published 10:14 am Sunday, August 17, 2008

BEIJING — Shelly-Ann Fraser completed a gold-medal Jamaican sweep of the 100-meter dashes at the Olympics on Sunday, winning the women’s race in 10.78 seconds.

Teammates Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart tied for second to make it an all Jamiacan medal stand.

Fraser’s victory came a day after Usain Bolt gave Jamaica the men’s title in world-record time.

As extensive a tradition of stellar sprinting as Jamaica has, the Caribbean island of about 2.8 million people never had won an Olympic gold in the 100 until this weekend.

Fraser won easily, punching the air as she crossed the finish line. Like Bolt, she is 21 years old.

The scoreboard flashed “Photo-Finish” for a couple of minutes before finally showing that Simpson and Stewart were both timed in 10.98 — and were both credited with finishing second.

Lauryn Williams and Muna Lee of the United States were fourth and fifth.

The U.S. team protested the women’s 100-meter final at the Olympics on Sunday night, asking that the race be reviewed because of a possible false start by one of the country’s sprinters.

“We have filed a protest looking at whether Torri Edwards false-started and whether the race should have been called back,” USA Track &Field communications director Jill Geer said.

Edwards herself said she thought she false-started. She wound up finishing last as Shelly-Ann Fraser led a Jamaican sweep of medals in the dash.

The IOC denied the protest.