'Wow! Wow!’ Women Get Olympic Track Off to Sizzling Start

TOKYO - Usain Bolt might be long gone from the sprint scene. It doesn’t mean Jamaica has slowed down one bit.

Nobody has, at least not on the women’s side of the sport. An opening day at the Olympics that’s supposed to produce little more than a brisk jog for the world’s best at 100 meters turned into something very different Friday. Reigning world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ran her heat in the nearly empty Olympic Stadium in 10.84 seconds. Her Jamaican rival, defending Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, finished in 10.82. And Marie-Josee Ta Lou, the Ivory Coast sprinter who finished an excruciating fourth in Rio de Janeiro, kept saying “Wow! Wow!” after she crossed the finish line in a blistering personal best of 10.78.