PARIS—Kis­hane Thomp­son of Ja­maica came ag­o­nis­ing­ly close to cap­tur­ing gold in the men’s 100 me­tres at the Paris Olympics on Sun­day night.

In one of the clos­est ever fin­ish­es in the event in Olympic his­to­ry, Thomp­son and even­tu­al win­ner Noah Lyles of the Unit­ed States both clocked 9.79 sec­onds in a pul­sat­ing fi­nal that had to be de­ter­mined by a pho­to fin­ish.

Lyles’ team­mate Fred Ker­ley won bronze in 9.81 sec­onds.

Ini­tial­ly, it ap­peared as though the burly 23-year-old Thomp­son had crossed the line first.

How­ev­er, fol­low­ing the use of photofin­ish tech­nol­o­gy, Lyles (9.784) was de­clared the win­ner, ahead of Thomp­son (9.789).

Lyles, who, to­geth­er with Thomp­son, watched the big screen anx­ious­ly as they await­ed the win­ner to be an­nounced, raised his hands in tri­umph be­fore tak­ing off for a lap of ho­n­our around the track when the de­ci­sion was made.

A de­ject­ed-look­ing Thomp­son could on­ly look on in dis­be­lief.

Thomp­son, who was hop­ing to be­come the first Ja­maican man to win the event since Us­ain Bolt in 2016, got off to a fast start and led the field af­ter 65 me­tres.

How­ev­er, the fastest man over 100 me­tres this year could not pro­duce his usu­al burst of speed over the last 30 me­tres, al­low­ing Lyles to pip him on the line.

“Hon­est­ly, it’s not just that I didn’t win the gold; it’s that I didn’t bet­ter my­self in that sense,” a dev­as­tat­ed Thomp­son said af­ter the fi­nal.

“To­day I re­al­ly gained a lot of ex­pe­ri­ence run­ning with all these great com­peti­tors. Big up to all of them. But I re­al­ly beat my­self to­day in that I didn’t trust my­self or my speed to bring my­self to the line in the first place.”

Mean­while, Lyles, who be­came the first man from the USA to win the event since Justin Gatlin at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, was ec­sta­t­ic.

“I went up to Kis­hane, and I was like, ‘I’m go­ing to be hon­est, I think you had that one’,” a beam­ing Lyles told Eu­rosport af­ter the race. “I was ful­ly pre­pared to see his name pop up. and to see my name pop, I’m like, ‘Good­ness gra­cious, I’m in­cred­i­ble’.”

Mean­while, there was al­so heart­break for Ja­maica’s Sh­er­ic­ka Jack­son, who was a no-show for the qual­i­fy­ing rounds in the women’s 200 me­tres.

Jack­son, the two-time reign­ing 200-me­tre world cham­pi­on, came in­to the Olympics nurs­ing a ham­string in­jury and pulled out of the event just mo­ments be­fore she was sched­uled to run in Heat 3.

The new­ly crowned 100-me­tre cham­pi­on, Julien Al­fred of St Lu­cia, eased in­to the next round af­ter com­fort­ably win­ning her heat.

Run­ning out of Heat 1, Al­fred cruised to vic­to­ry in 22.41 sec­onds, well ahead of sec­ond-placed Gemi­ma Joseph of France (22.72), while Swe­den’s Ju­lia Hen­riks­son (22.79) was the oth­er au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fi­er.

Ja­maica’s Niesha Burgher al­so booked her spot in the next round af­ter fin­ish­ing sec­ond in Heat 2 in 22.54 sec­onds, be­hind Gabrielle Thomas of the USA, who clocked 22.20 to be the fastest qual­i­fi­er.

Fel­low Ja­maican Lanae-Ta­va Thomas al­so ad­vanced, plac­ing sec­ond in Heat 5 in a time of 22.70 sec­onds.

The Ja­maican pair of Carey McLeod and Wayne Pin­nock al­so made it past the first round of qual­i­fy­ing for the men’s long jump.

McLeod leapt 7.90 me­tres to ad­vance out of Group A, while Pin­nock’s ef­fort of 7.96 was good enough to qual­i­fy from Group B.

Their team­mate, Ta­jay Gayle, how­ev­er, was elim­i­nat­ed with a leap of 7.78 me­tres.

In the men’s 110-me­tre hur­dles, Ja­maica’s trio of Or­lan­do Ben­nett, Rasheed Broad­bell, Hansle Parch­ment, and An­toine An­drews of the Ba­hamas all ad­vanced to the next round of qual­i­fy­ing.

Rushell Clay­ton of Ja­maica won her heat in the women’s 400-me­tre hur­dles to eas­i­ly ad­vance, while her team­mates Shi­ann Salmon and Janieve Rus­sell, who fin­ished sec­ond and third, re­spec­tive­ly, in their heats, al­so booked their spots in the next round.

Ki­rani James of Grena­da ex­pect­ed­ly cruised in­to the sec­ond round of the men’s 400 me­tres, clock­ing 44.78 sec­onds to com­fort­ably win Heat 5.

Al­so ad­vanc­ing in the event were Ja­maica’s Je­vaughn Pow­ell and Jereem Richards of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Men's 100 me­tres Fi­nal

1. Noah Lyles, Unit­ed States, 9.79.

2. Kis­hane Thomp­son, Ja­maica, 9.79.

3. Fred Ker­ley, Unit­ed States, 9.81.

4. Akani Sim­bine, South Africa, 9.82.

5. La­m­ont Mar­cell Ja­cobs, Italy, 9.85.

6. Let­sile Tebo­go, Botswana, 9.86.

7. Ken­neth Bednarek, Unit­ed States, 9.88.

8. Oblique Seville, Ja­maica, 9.91.

(CMC)