By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Masai Russell of the United States of America (USA) stormed to gold medal in the Women’s 100m Hurdles final at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.
Russell upsets the favourites, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who is the Olympic defending champion to win the gold medal in a time of 12.33 second.
Cyrena Samba-Mayela of France came second to win the silver medal in a time of 12.34 seconds, while Camacho-Quinn won the bronze medal in a time of 12.36 seconds.
However, Russell, 24 is the U.S. NCAA Record holder in the 100m hurdles. Russell holds personal bests of 12.25 seconds over 100m hurdles which is tied for 4 of all time, 7.75 seconds over 60 metres hurdles, which is 13 of all time and 54.66 seconds over 400 metres hurdles.
She finished first at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 100 metre hurdles with a time of 12.25 (PB) to qualify her for the Olympic Games in Paris.
Russell finished third at the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships qualifying to represent USA at the World Championships.
She is a class of 2018 Bullis School and class of 2022 University of Kentucky alumni.
