Olympics-Athletics-Thompson so close as Jamaica-US rivalry rumbles on

By Helen Reid

PARIS (Reuters) - Jamaica's Kishane Thompson came so close to emulating his compatriot Usain Bolt and becoming Olympic 100 metres champion on Sunday but American Noah Lyles denied him by a heartbeat.

Thompson led for most of the race and clocked the same 9.79 time as Lyles who won by five thousandths of a second in a photo finish after timing his dip to cross the line to perfection.

Even Lyles admitted he thought Thompson, who came into the final as the fastest man this year, had beaten him.

"He said, 'Hey Kishane I thought you got it' and I said, 'I'm not sure'," Thompson said.

"I wasn't patient enough with myself to let my speed bring me at the line, in the position that I know I could have gone to, but I have learned from it."

Asked if he thought the pair should share the medal, Thompson said: "I think the sport is too competitive, no offence to any other sport. It's too competitive for us to share a gold medal."

Thompson's time - 9.789, against Lyles' 9.784 - was two hundredths of a second off his personal best of 9.77 set in June.

The Lyles-Thompson showdown was the latest chapter in a sprint rivalry between the U.S. and Jamaica that has gripped the sport for almost two decades.

Bolt won three successive 100 and 200 metres Olympic golds, and Yohan Blake weighed in with a silver in 2012. In world championships, Bolt and Blake won four 100s in a row between from 2009 to 2015 while Bolt nailed four successive 200s and helped his country to four sprint relay golds.

It was a domination the United States could not match during the best part of a century as the sprint superpower, and with Jamaica's women also routinely filling the top step of their podiums, the Caribbean nation was on top of the world.

Since Bolt's retirement in 2017, however, Jamaica's gold rush has dried up, and a succession of male sprinters have been built up as "the new Bolt", a pressure they could surely do without.

"I know that Jamaica would have wanted me to get the gold, everybody loves winners," Thompson said. "I would have loved to win today, but big up to the whole field."

Fellow Jamaican Oblique Seville, who had beaten Lyles to win their semi-final on Sunday, was left in tears after finishing last, albeit in an impressive time of 9.91 seconds.

(Reporting by Helen Reid, editing by Ed Osmond)