Shericka Jackson won the women’s 200 metres, completing the sprint double on the last day of the Jamaican Olympic trials.
The athlete, who is the double 200m world champion, finished in 22.29 seconds, her best performance of the year. Her record was followed by Lanae-Tava Thomas in second place with 22.34 seconds and Niesha Burgher in third with 22.39 seconds.
About her recent achievements, Jackson declared: “I’m pretty pleased given how the season was going. I ran a season-best yesterday and came back with another season-best today, so I’m definitely happy.”
She added: “I’m happy and healthy, so it’s go-time for the Olympics.”
Other athletes who broke records at the trials
Ackera Nugent broke a national record to win the 100m hurdles. The athlete finished in 12.28 seconds, beating two-time world champion Danielle Williams, who finished second with 12.53 seconds, and Janeek Brown third with 12.61 seconds.
Nugent admitted: “This is something that I’ve written down for myself, it’s on my mirror, it’s on my phone so I knew that I was capable and as long as I trusted the process and remained coachable, everything would come together at the end.”
Nugent stated that in preparation for the trials, she worked on regulating her speed between hurdles.
“There are other phenomenal ladies out there that will be coming, so the only thing I can do is focus on me… It’s my first full year as a professional, so it just about making the adjustments with better runs,” she added.
The men’s 110m hurdles was decided by a photo finish, with Commonwealth Games champion Rasheed Broadbell winning in 13.18 seconds, just five-thousandths of a second faster than Orlando Bennett. Meanwhile, Bryan Levell won the men’s 200m in a personal best of 19.97 seconds, followed by Andrew Hudson with 20.02 seconds and Javari Thomas with 20.32 seconds.
On Thursday, Aug 31, Shericka Jackson, 29, secured another resounding 200m victory in the 2023 Zurich Diamond in Switzerland.
Jackson showed off her unrivaled speed at the beginning of the race and continued to lead the Swiss track until the end. The Jamaican sprinter clocked a time of 21.82 seconds when she finished the 200 m event, leaving behind second and third placers Daryll Neita with 22.25 seconds and Kayla White with 22.33 seconds, respectively.
Although Jackson did not beat the 1988 world record of Florence Griffith Joyner in the 200 meters, she was able to come close with her recent record at the World Athletics Championships 2023 last week. She was also the first-place finisher in the 200 meters event, with a time of 21.41 seconds, which was just 0.07 seconds shy of the world record.
In a post-race interview, Jackson shared her thoughts as to how she felt about her 21.82 seconds record this time:
“I’m feeling good, and not even a week since the (World Athletics) Championship finished and I’m here competing, so it was a good feeling just to be here competing, and I’m healthy, so it’s great.”
“This full house is wonderful. I enjoyed the atmosphere a lot. I wanted to come out here and perform,”, Jackson said.
Without a doubt, Jackson has certainly earned a place among the most decorated 200m racers of all time, having won five Olympic medals. However, she refuses to rest on her laurels just yet, as there are still two more races left in the season, including a final in Eugene. She also states that she’s not focusing on the Paris Olympics in 2024 yet and just wishes to finish the season well this year.
“To be honest, the season has not finished yet, so my focus is not yet on the Olympic Games, but on this 2023 season,” explained Jackson. “I just want to finish this season well.”
Jackson also thanked her fans in one interview, saying:
“I just want to say thank you, guys, and I do appreciate your support always.”
Shericka Jacksons skyrockets to 2nd spot on the list of ‘Greatest Women Combo Sprinters’
Shericka Jackson has made a big jump in the rankings since she switched to shorter sprints in the last couple of years, going from 22nd in the rankings to 2nd.
This accomplishment may come as a surprise to those who haven’t been following Jackson’s meteoric rise in recent years, but those who are familiar with her story know that she has always been a rising star in her own right, and it was only a slight shift in her trajectory that propelled her career forward.
A 400-meter career
Jackson’s track and field career began much earlier than most of her contemporary foes, but back then, Jackson’s speciality was the 400-meter sprint. As early as 2008, Jackson competed in the 2008 CARIFTA Games, where she achieved gold medals in both the 400-meter and the 4×400-meter relay. In the following year, Jackson joined the same competition again and snagged four gold medals, this time in the 200 meter, 400 meter, 4×100 meter, and 4×400 meter events.
No one knew then that this would be the beginning of a successful career for the Jamaican sprinter.
In the years that came, Jackson eventually grew to be a respectable 400-meter sprinter among her peers. In 2016, she made her Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, where she achieved bronze and silver medals in the 400 meters and 4×400 meters, respectively.
Her other notable accomplishments include another bronze medal at the 2015 World Championships and a personal best of 49.47 at the 2019 World Championships in Qatar.
Shericka Jackson shifts to shorter sprints
But in 2021, under the tutelage of new coach Stephen Francis, Jackson decided to switch gears and focus on shorter sprints. And it paid off big for Jackson. She went on to medal in bronze in the 100 meters and in the 4×100 meters at her second Olympics in Tokyo.
In 2022, she ushered in a new era and achieved a dominant performance at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, reaching the podium three times. She was second in the 100 meters and the 4×100 meters and was named the champion in the 200 meters with a time of 21.45 seconds. In the same year, she also competed in the NACAC Championships and again clinched first place in the 100 meter event with a time of 10.83 seconds.
Jackson dominates the ‘23 season
It’s no secret that Shericka Jackson has been aiming for Flo-Jo’s 200-meter world record since the start of the 2023 World Championships, but so far the record has eluded her. In Budapest, Jackson came tantalizingly close to breaking the 35-year old record, clocking a personal best of 21.41 seconds to take the lead in the event.
Despite failing to break the record, this motivation proved to be working for Jackson as she continued to sweep gold medals in the World Championships, in the Diamond League meetings in Zurich and Brussels, and finally at the Prefontaine Classic.
Jackson achieved gold medals in both the 100 and 200-meter running events at the Oregon Prefontaine Classic, beating the top-ranked 100-meter sprinter in the world, Sha’Carri Richardson.
Earlier this year at the Jamaica Track and Field Championships, Jackson also clinched first place in the 100-meter event, clocking 10.65 seconds to set a personal best and world lead.
Rises through the ranks
In just two short years, Jackson has skyrocketed up the rankings of the ‘Greatest Women Combo Sprinters’ thanks to her success in shorter sprints. The rankings are based on how many points a sprinter gets for their 100, 200, and 400-meter personal bests.
Shericka Jackson and Gabrielle Thomas, two of the world’s fastest women over the 200 metres, will be vying for their first individual Olympic gold at the Paris Games.
Jackson was part of the Jamaican quartet that won the 4×100 metres gold in Tokyo three years ago, but her individual best is a 100-metre bronze from Tokyo.
Thomas was one of the American foursome that claimed the 4×100 metres silver in Tokyo. Her individual best is a 200-metre silver from Tokyo, where she was beaten to the gold by the Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah.
Thompson-Herah, who did a treble in Tokyo, winning the 100 metres, 200 metres and the 4×100 metre relay, is not competing in Paris because of an Achilles tendon injury.
Despite her absence, the Paris 200 metres will see a formidable field.
Shericka Jackson
Jackson, the reigning 200-metre world champion, won the event at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in 21.41 seconds. Only one woman has run the 200 metres faster – the late Florence Griffith-Joyner of the United States, who clocked 21.34 seconds, a world record to this day.
While Jackson’s is the second fastest 200-metre run by a woman, Thomas ran pretty close too. She ran the distance in 21.60 seconds – the fourth fastest time — in Eugene, United States, in September 2023.
Jackson came to Paris to run in the 100 metres as well as the 200 metres, but she pulled out of the 100 metres recently, citing an injury she suffered in a race in Hungary in July. She said she had to “protect my body”. She decided to focus on the 200 metres instead, in which she won the World Championships in 2022 and 2023.
Gabrielle Thomas
Thomas is also hoping for gold.
“When I came back from the Tokyo Olympics with a bronze medal and a silver, I was very happy with that,” she said in an interview with Sky Sport.
“I would have been happy ending my career there. It’s really all the outward talk and chatter that you hear that makes you want that gold medal. You’re like, ‘Dang, well I really got to go get that!’ But it wasn’t about that for me. It was about the fact that I put on a performance that I was proud of, and that was my best season to date. If I can go and replicate that in Paris, I’ll be really happy. Hopefully, that ends up with a gold medal.”
The 200 metres will be more than a two-horse race.
Jackson and Thomas will have to contend with other famous sprinters, such as Dina Asher-Smith, Great Britain’s 2019 world 200-metre champion, and Cote d’Ivoire legend Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith. The African star finished among the top five in the sprint double at the last two Games. The reigning world indoor 60-metre champion Julien Alfred will also be in the running. She will be raring to bring home the first Olympic medal to St Lucia.
A parting factoid for the fans: There have been only three repeat winners in the history of the women’s 200 metres at the Olympics. Elaine Thompson-Herah was the last. The 200-metre gold medallist in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and the Tokyo Olympics three years ago is missing the action through injury.
Shericka Jackson, a renowned Jamaican runner, was dominating a women’s 200-metre race in Hungary when she abruptly suffered an injury. The event served as a practice run for the coming Olympics.
With women’s 100 and 200m Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah having previously withdrawn from the Games due to an injury, Jackson’s presumed ailment represents the latest blow to the Jamaican team. It’s still unclear how exactly Jackson might have been injured.
Jackson’s race performance
With about 50 metres left in the race, Jackson started to limp, but she managed to cross the finish line on her own. Due to this unexpected turn of events, Julien Alfred of St. Lucia finished first in the end, clocking a season-best time of 22.16 seconds to wrap up the competition. Lanae-Tava Thomas, a sprinter, finished third.
In the 400-metre competition at the Rio 2016 Olympics, Jackson took home a bronze medal. At the Tokyo Olympics, she went on to win gold in the 4×100-metre relay. The athlete is expected to be the greatest threat to American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson in the 100-metre event if she is well enough to run in Paris.
Following her 10.71-second finish in the women’s 100-metre race last month, Richardson will make her Olympic debut.
Jamaican track star Shericka Jackson won’t be chasing a sprint double at the Paris Olympics. She dropped out of the 100 metres on Wednesday, saying, “The decision is just to protect my body.”
She will focus instead on the 200 metres in which she is the current world champion, having won the event in Eugene, USA, in 2022 and Budapest, Hungary, in 2023.
Jackson explained she dropped out of the 100 metres because of an injury she suffered at a race earlier this month.
‘I got hurt’ in Hungary race, she says
In Jackson’s final pre-Olympics race in Hungary, she pulled up with a calf cramp and limped off the track.
“I got hurt, and me and my coach felt like it was a good decision to only run one event,” she told reporters.
Earlier this week, Jackson’s coach, Stephen Francis, told the Jamaica Gleaner website that Jackson “appears OK to me”.
Jackson, however, described the decision to pull out as coming from both herself and Francis.
Shericka Jackson, ranked number two in the world for 100 metres, has pulled out of the 100m less than two days before the heats start.
Jackson said she would still run the 200 metres, where she is the only woman other than the world-record holder, the late Florence Griffith Joyner, to finish in under 21.5 seconds.
In Jackson’s absence, American world champion Sha’Carri Richardson, who holds the world-leading time of 10.71 seconds this year, will start as the favourite for the 100-metre gold medal.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, who won the sprint double at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and again in Tokyo, will not defend her titles. She dropped out of the Jamaican trials last month with an Achilles injury.
Jackson had been considered a top contender in the 100 metres after winning bronze in the event at the Tokyo Games and finishing second at each of the past two world championships.
Olympic debutant Tia Clayton and two-time Olympic 100-metre champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will carry Jamaica’s best medal hopes in the event.
Pryce-Jones, 37, won gold in the 100 metres in Beijing (2008) and London (2012).
Richardson favourite in 100m
However, Richardson is the current favourite. She won the event in her first world championships last summer.
The Jamaicans won all three medals in the 100 metres in Tokyo with Thompson -Herah winning gold, Pryce-Jones silver, and Jackson bronze. Only Pryce-Jones will be competing in the event in Paris.
Jamaica track and field team manager Ludlow Watts said Shashalee Forbes would replace Jackson in the 100 metres. Forbes was fourth in the 100 in 11.04 seconds at the Jamaican trials.
The preliminary rounds of the women’s 100 begin Friday. The final is set for Saturday.
