Jamaica’s latest 100-meter national champion, Kishane Thompson, made a bold statement after his victory in the race. He claimed that he was actually slowing down 60 meters into the event, despite running the fastest time in the world in two years. Thompson’s win in the Jamaican 100-meter national championship clocked in at 9.77 seconds, positioning him as a potential contender to follow in the footsteps of his country’s legendary sprinter, Usain Bolt, as an Olympic champion next month.
In an interview after the race, Thompson revealed that his coach had instructed him to only run the first 60 meters of the race. His goal was simply to run a 70 or 60 and then assess his performance. This victory came in his first race of the year, and Thompson admitted that he was new to running rounds in competition.
Thompson’s sprint triumph came after a 9.82 finish in his opening heat the previous night, where he also had to deal with doping control officers. In the final, he outpaced Oblique Seville, who had beaten Noah Lyles earlier in the year at the Tokyo Olympics. Thompson’s time of 9.77 seconds was the quickest since Fred Kerley’s 9.76-second victory at the 2022 world championships, making Thompson the fourth-fastest Jamaican sprinter in the history of the country, behind Bolt, Yohan Blake, and Asafa Powell.
Despite his impressive performance, Thompson remains humble, expressing uncertainty about how fast he can ultimately go. He acknowledged that
