MARRAKECH, Morocco, CMC – Two-time world champion Shericka Jackson made her long-awaited 200-meter season debut and won – but barely at Sunday’s World Athletics Diamond League meet.
Jackson, the second-fastest woman of all time, crossed the line at the Grand Stade de Marrakech in 22.82, but instead of pulling away from the field to win by a precise distance, as she often does, the Jamaican appeared to be fighting for victory all the way.
Maboundou Koné of the Ivory Coast was second in 22.96, and Helene Parisot of France third in a personal best time of 23.02.
Jackson’s win was one of two for Jamaican women in the program, with World Championships bronze medallist Rushell Clayton getting the other.
Clayton led a Jamaican 1-2 in the women’s 400m hurdles, winning in 53.98 from compatriot Shiann Salmon, whose 54.27 was a season’s best, and Anna Ryzhykova of Ukraine grabbed third in her season’s best of 55.09.
Jackson, Clayton, and Salmon got the only podium finishes among the English-speaking Caribbean participants at the meet.
Daniel Thomas-Dodd of Jamaica finished fourth with a mark 18.54 meters in the women’s shot putt, where Chase Jackson of the United States broke a 10-year-old meet record with a second-round heave of 20 meters flat, adding 31 centimeters to the mark of New Zealander Valerie Adams from 2014.
The Jamaican pair of Travis Smikle and Fredrik Dacres finished fourth and sixth in the men’s discus, where recent world record-breaker Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania racked up his third consecutive competition beyond 70 meters.
A toss of 66.04 was the best for Smikle, and Dacres reached a mark of 65.05, but Alekna captured the headlines.
He fouled his first attempt before he took the lead in the second round with a mark of 69.94 and then unleashed a 70.70 toss in the fourth round – eight centimeters shy of the meet record – to extend his lead.
Matt Denny of Australia was second with 67.74, and World and Olympic champion Daniel Ståhl of Sweden was third with 67.49m.
Rohan Watson of Jamaica clocked 10.26 and was fifth in the men’s 100 meters, where compatriot and former world champion Yohan Blake ran a season’s best 10.41, but it was only good enough for eighth out of the nine runners.
Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon got the better of Olympic men’s 200 champion Andre de Grasse in the race, winning in 10.11 seconds to the Canadian’s 10.19, with Jeremiah Azu of Great Britain taking third in 10.25.
The next Diamond League meet will be the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday in Eugene, Oregon.
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