SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Sharon Firisua of the Solomon Islands resembled and acted like a sprinter setting up her starting blocks. But when the gun went off, she was a marathoner trying to sprint.
The distance runner who was given her country's lone spot in the women's 100 meters at the Paris Olympics finished last in the field among the finishers on Friday. Her time of 14.31 seconds, though, was a personal best.
After the race, Firisua proved quick, weaving her way through the media mixed zone without talking to reporters.
This was her third trip to the Olympics — and first as a sprinter. She ran the 5,000 meters during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and the marathon at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
When Firisua didn’t qualify for Paris, her country’s Olympic officials decided to award her the wild-card spot they had been granted. Those spots typically are reserved for small countries as a way of providing their athletes a chance to compete in the big time, even if they don’t meet the necessary qualifying standard.
The country’s officials were told the 100 was the only race that had the space. Firisua didn't have a time in the event, but she did have one in every distance from the 1,500 meters to the marathon.
In 2021, Firisua was named the tourism ambassador for the chain of islands in the western South Pacific, according to her Olympic bio.
Firisua's 100 time ended up being 3.37 seconds slower than what reigning world champion Sha'Carri Richardson ran in a first-round heat later in the morning.
The pick of Firisua wasn't without controversy. The country’s top sprinter, Jovita Arunia, did not qualify for the event and wasn't given this spot.
“We’re the (actual) sprinters ... I don’t know what went wrong, it’s unbelievable,” she told Australia’s ABC News.
Arunia added that she's considering quitting the sport.
“I will not compete anymore because of what they did,” she said.
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
Sharon Firisua, middle, of Solomon Islands, competes in the women's 100-meter run at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Sharon Firisua, middle, of Solomon Islands, competes in the women's 100-meter run at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Sharon Firisua, right, of Solomon Islands, gets a for Temalini Manatoa, of Tuvalu, after a heat in the women's 100-meter run at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Sharon Firisua, of Solomon Islands, competes in the women's 100-meter run at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
LONDON (AP) — Google won a court challenge on Wednesday against a 1.49 billion euro ($1.66 billion) European Union antitrust fine imposed five years ago that targeted its online advertising business.
The EU's General Court said it was throwing out the 2019 penalty imposed by the European Commission, which is the 27-nation bloc's top antitrust enforcer.
“The General Court annuls the Commission’s decision in its entirety,” the court said in a press release.
The commission's ruling applied to a narrow portion of Google’s ad business: ads that the U.S. tech giant sold next to Google search results on third-party websites.
Regulators had accused Google of inserting exclusivity clauses in its contracts that barred these websites from running similarly placed ads sold by Google’s rivals. The commission said when it issued the penalty that Google's behavior resulted in advertisers and website owners having less choice and likely facing higher prices that would be passed on to consumers.
But the General Court said the commission “committed errors” when it assessed those clauses. The commission failed to demonstrate that Google's contracts deterred innovation, harmed consumers or helped the company hold on to and strengthen its dominant position in national online search advertising markets, it said.
The ruling can be appealed, but only on points of law, to the Court of Justice, the bloc's top court.
The commission said in a brief statement that it “will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps.”
Google said it changed its contracts in 2016 to remove the provisions in question, even before the commission imposed its decision.
“We are pleased that the court has recognised errors in the original decision and annulled the fine,” Google said in a statement. "We will review the full decision closely.”
The company's legal victory comes a week after it lost a final challenge against a separate EU antitrust case for its shopping comparison service that also involved a hefty fine.
They were among three antitrust penalties totaling about 8 billion euros that the commission punished Google with in the previous decade. The penalties marked the beginning of an era of intensifying scrutiny for Big Tech companies.
Since then, Google has faced escalating pressure on both sides of the Atlantic over its digital ad business. It’s currently battling the Justice Department in a U.S. federal court over allegations that its dominance over the technology that controls the sale of billions of internet display ads constitutes an illegal monopoly.
British competition regulators this month accused the company of abusing its dominance in the country’s digital ad market and giving preference to its own services.
EU antitrust enforcers carrying out their own investigation suggested last year that breaking up the company was the only way to satisfy competition concerns about its digital ad business.
FILE - In this April 17, 2007 file photo, exhibitors work on laptop computers in front of an illuminated sign of the Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)
