Rio de Janeiro: Usain Bolt again stole the show, but there was drama aplenty in the race for third behind the Jamaican and Canada's Andre De Grasse in the 200m final on Thursday night.
Both Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre and Briton Adam Gemili clocked a time of 20.12 seconds, but Lemaitre got the nod for bronze in a photo finish. The gap between the runners in the photo was barely perceptible - recorded at just three-thousandths of a second.
Dutchman Churandy Martina was less than a head away with a time of 20.13.
Times to the thousands@lemaitreathle 20.116@Adam_Gemili 20.119@Martina200m 20.122 https://t.co/pw3OmlYY4W
— IAAF (@iaaforg) August 19, 2016
Lemaitre's emotions spilled over after he realised he had won bronze. A perennial finalist in the sprints at world championships and Olympic Games, the 26-year-old had never won an individual medal at either event until Thursday, with his lone previous Olympic medal being a relay bronze from London four years ago.
The thrilling finish follows a three-way dead heat for silver in the men's 100m butterfly last week as legendary American Michael Phelps recorded an identical time to South Africa's Chad Le Clos and Hungary's Laszlo Cseh, all of whom played second fiddle to Singapore's Joseph Schooling.
Rather than split the trio by going to the photo, all three swimmers were presented with silver medals. Spare a thought for Gemili, who missed out on bronze at the track.
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