What a sweep. Brianna Rollins won the 100-meter hurdles, leading a 1-2-3 Team USA finish as Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin finished in second and third, respectively.
Olympics 2016: Brianna Rollins wins gold medal in women’s 100m hurdles as Team USA sweeps
The U.S. team finished 1-2-3 in a thrilling race -- becoming the first nation to sweep the top three spots in the women’s 100 hurdles.
Rollins won handily in a time of 12.48 seconds. Ali finished second in 12.59 and Castlin just nipped Great Britain’s Cindy Ofili at the line, winning the bronze by a 12.61 to 12.63 margin. It was the first time a nation had swept the top three spots in the 100 hurdles.
Rollins made it over the 10 hurdles cleanly and raced her way to her first gold medal, bringing the U.S. their first gold on the track. Before the 100-meter hurdles, the U.S. track and field team hadn't won a gold medal on the blue oval in Brazil -- though they had won gold in field events thanks to Michelle Carter in the shot put, Tianna Bartoletta in the long jump and Christian Taylor in the triple jump. Rollins remedied that with a thrilling run.
The U.S. is loaded in women’s hurdling -- Keni Harrison broke the world record with a time of 12.20 seconds in July, but she didn’t even make the U.S. Olympic team. Rollins, Castlin and Ali clearly made up quite the team even without Harrison, though.
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