By Omar Mohammed
TOKYO (Reuters) – Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn capped a dazzling performance in the 100 metres hurdles in Tokyo with a gold medal while Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece won the men’s long jump title in an action packed Monday morning at the Olympic Stadium.

A day earlier, Camacho-Quinn shattered the Olympic record in her semi-final and on Monday she exploded off the blocks and stormed through the finish line, clocking 12.37 seconds to secure her first Olympic gold.

American Kendra Harrison, the world record holder, won silver in 12.52 and Jamaican Megan Tapper grabbed bronze in 12.55.

“At this point I was really running for the world record. I hit the hurdle, but everything happens for a reason. I came through with the gold. My first gold medal,” Camacho-Quinn said after the race.

Camacho-Quinn’s win was the first Olympic gold medal in athletics for Puerto Rico.

Harrison, who broke the 100m hurdles world record soon after failing to make the team for the 2016 Rio Games, said it felt great to win silver.
“I missed out in 2016 so to come here and get a medal for my country, I couldn’t be happier,” she said.

There was drama in the men’s long jump as Tentoglou won with his last leap of 8.41 metres which tied with Cuba’s Juan Miguel Echevarria’s jump, but the Greek secured the title on a countback with his next-best effort of 8.15m ahead of the Cuban’s 8.09.

“What an incredible competition. What an incredible jump, the last jump,” Tentoglou said after the final. “In the end I managed to pull something out to get the medal.”
Echevarria settled for silver while his compatriot Maykel Masso picked up the bronze medal.

“It’s not what I expected, the result I expected, but still, it’s a very welcome prize,” Echevarria said.
His compatriot Mason also lauded the competition.

“It was a spectacular competition, I hope everyone enjoyed it. I am very happy for the country to have won two medals,” he said after the final.