In case you missed it, the woman’s 100 meter finals at the USATF Olympic Trials resulted in a “tie” for 3rd and 4th place.
We’ve seen ties in jumping and throwing events, where your second best performance is used for the tie breaker. In the high jump, you have jump-offs.
We saw a Tie in the 1982 Commonwealth Games 200m Alan Wells and Mike McFarlane, and that race remains the only tie in sprinting history.
In the Trials, a tie for 1st & 2nd or 2nd and 3rd doesn’t matter.. your ticket is booked as long as you have the standard. (Well, in theory anyways. Canada has a much more complex selection process, but I’ll save that rant for another day)
But what happens when you have a tie for 3rd and 4th?
That’s exactly what happened with Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh. Both are from NIKE (and training partners!), so we won’t see any big-muscle shenanigans being used.
The photo finish and fully electronic timing rounds up to the nearest thousandths of a second, with the camera at 3000 frames per second, and they both had 11.068.
Look at the results, photo finish image and video.
Related articles:
- Photo Finish–The Last 10 meters, Drive, Relax, and Dip
- iPhone sprintTimer – Photo Finish & Race Timing
- Photo Finish: How to Read a Finish Line Photo
- Video of 2001 World Championships 200 meters
- 9.77 seconds – 100 Meter World Record revisited
- Photo Finish: Leaning at the Tape
- Tie in the 1982 Commonwealth Games 200m
Women’s 100 Meter Dash RESULTS (wind: +0.9)
1 Carmelita Jeter Nike 10.92 0.182
2 Tianna Madison Saucony 10.96 0.187
3 Jeneba Tarmoh Nike 11.07 0.164 [11.068]
3 Allyson Felix Nike 11.07 0.188 [11.068]
5 Bianca Knight adidas 11.14 0.175
6 Lauryn Williams Saucony 11.18 0.170
7 English Gardner Oregon 11.28 0.153
8 Alexandria Anderson Nike 11.37 0.136
Here is the video on YouTube
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