USA's 100 hurdlers make no mistakes in first round
RIO DE JANEIRO — The most dominant American track event at these Summer Games looks ready for a sweep of the medal podium.
Kristin Castlin, Nia Ali and Brianna Rollins advanced through the opening round of the women’s 100-meter hurdles with room to spare, each winning their respective heats to move into Wednesday’s semifinals.
Overall, Rollins finished first among all hurdlers (with a time of 12.54 seconds), Castlin finished second (12.68) and Ali finished sixth (12.76).
Rollins’ heat illuminated the gap between the USA and its competition. Her time was .27 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher Megan Simmonds of Jamaic (12.81).
It was to be expected. No team — and not just from the USA but from around the world — on the track at Olympic Stadium touts three such gold-caliber athletes, and no team stands a better chance of providing a country-wide sweep.
Barring a misstep or injury, it would be unsurprising to see the three finish gold, silver and bronze in the final. The only question, in fact, might ask what order Castlin, Ali and Rollins will finish.
The three first-time Olympians earned their way to Rio by battling through the U.S. team trials, which featured as many as seven hurdlers capable of winning gold at these Games.
For example, the team here doesn’t even include Kendra Harrison, who finished sixth at the trials but owns the world record in the discipline — a blazing 12.20 set at an event in London on July 22.
“It could’ve been any one of us that broke into the finals to make the team,” Rollins said before competition.
American women had the top 20 times in 2016, while the first time from a non-American on the list, Germany’s Cindy Roleder, is nearly a half-second behind Harrison’s world-record time.
TRACK AND FIELD AT THE RIO OLYMPICS
