Can Jamaica win the women’s 4×100 metres relay at the Paris Olympics like they did at Tokyo 2020? The small Caribbean island nation’s track and field community is talking about the state of play after mishaps suffered by two of their leading sprinters.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, the reigning 100 and 200 metres Olympic champion who was part of the gold-winning Tokyo relay team, won’t be going to Paris. She didn’t take part in the Jamaican Olympic trials after an Achilles injury at the New York Grand Prix in June.
The world 200 metres champion Shericka Jackson, who was also on the Tokyo Olympic-winning relay team, suffered a mishap too.
She limped out of a race recently.
Jackson pulled up with an apparent injury late in a race on July 9 during the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix.
She was in front and nearing the finish line when she suddenly pulled up in apparent pain. She seemed to be in discomfort as she walked off the track.
Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia won the race.
Jackson’s condition and the likely consequences for the Jamaican Olympic squad have become a matter of intense speculation.
Ready Set Go
American Justin Gatlin, the 2004 Olympics 100 metres champion, and track and field coach Rodney Green from the Bahamas discussed Jackson and Jamaica on their podcast, Ready Set Go.
Recalling how Jackson pulled up in pain in Hungary, Rodney Green asked, “Do we think it’s a cramp? How serious is It do we think it is?”
Justin Gatlin replied: “I dealt with that in 2016. I had a hamstring injury maybe about three weeks before the trial and it was more than a cramp.”
A condition like that requires daily, round-the-clock therapy, he said.
Jackson isn’t going to lose fitness because she is in incredible shape. But she needs to rest so “that when she gets out there, she’s going to be ready to run once again, but she got to make sure that hamstring is able to hold up.” “If she’s going for tall orders, if she’s going out to try to get Olympic gold or even try to break or threaten the world record once again, [then] she needs that hamstring to be 100% [fit],” he added.
She needs to be mentally ready to take on the challenge, said Green.
‘Pressure on Shericka’
Gatlin said, “Watching her in the documentary, I saw the pressure on her.” He added, “I think the pressure on her not only within her camp but also the country of Jamaica like she’s the next generation that’s coming, like she’s the leader, and that’s what they’re gonna put her as that, in that Sprint show, that’s what I saw. I saw a young woman who love what she do, but she felt uncomfortable with those pressures.”
Green said,”Yeah. But she got a good group coming up behind her with Tia Clayton, she got Atlanta Reed.”
However, he added, “I don’t know how that works out with America cause America right now is spinning on all cylinders. Y’all think how they gonna fare against USA without Shericka if she is injured?”
He referred to America’s formidable pool of athletes including Sha’Carri Richardson, Gabby Thomas, Melissa Jefferson, TT Terry, Tamari Davis, Jenna Prandini
Gatlin said: “I think it’s gonna be tough for them [Jamaicans] to even podium. You gotta look at other countries like Great Britain… they got a good squad of ladies who matured and started working together, they gonna be ready to go on and get on that podium again. So I think it’s gonna be a tall order for the ladies over in Jamaica if they definitely lose Elaine, if they also lose Shericka. That’s gonna be a tough battle.”