Shericka Jackson promised something special, and she delivered something special. And that special performance has catapulted her to the forefront of the women’s 200m field for next month’s World Championships following a world-leading 21.55-second clocking on Sunday night.
The performance resulted in her completing a sprint double at the JAAA National Senior and Junior Championships, which ended on Sunday inside Kingston’s National Stadium.
On Friday night, Jackson clocked a smashing season’s best of 10.77 seconds (0.9mps) to turn back Kemba Nelson (10.88) and Olympic Games double sprint gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.89) in the 100m final.
And in an ominous post-race interview, then she promised “something special” for the 200m final.
The 21.55 seconds is the third-best time ever, behind only Florence Griffith-Joyner’s world record 21.34 seconds and Thompson-Herah’s 21.33 seconds.
Jackson’s previous personal best was 21.81 seconds, set last September in Zurich.
On Sunday, the 27-year-old Jackson led all the way in lane six before pulling farther and farther away at the end. Thompson-Herah was well beaten into second place in 22.05, with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce back in third place in 22.14 seconds.
Meanwhile, Yohan Blake, who has shown a return to top form courtesy of the victory in the 100m final on Friday, was denied the sprint double by American-born Andrew Hudson, running out of the Empire Athletics club.
The 25-year-old Hudson, whose father is Jamaican, was competing in Jamaica for the first time, and he silenced the crowd as he led all the way into the straight before staving off Blake’s late charge.
Hudson won in 20.10 seconds to Blake’s 20.31 seconds. Nigel Ellis was third in 20.41 seconds, with Rasheed Dwyer finishing in fourth place in 20.43 seconds.
It is understood that Hudson has applied to World Athletics to switch allegiance to Jamaica and the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association is in the process of facilitating the completion of that application.
Meanwhile, reigning Olympic Games 110m hurdles gold medallist Hansle Parchment won the National title in 13.14 seconds (1.0mps), but fellow Olympic Games and World Championships gold medallist Omar McLeod faded into last place and has missed a global event for the second consecutive year. He also missed the Tokyo Olympic Games last year.
Parchment won ahead of Rasheed Broadbell (13.20) and Orlando Bennett in 13.28 seconds. McLeod ended in 13.54 seconds.
The 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist believes he’s in a better place now, as opposed to those injury-plagued years which derailed his career.
“Last year was a foundation kind of setup for me. I learned quite a bit about how to keep injuries away from little things I would have been doing to shoot myself in the foot. I’ve fixed most of those things, and I feel like I’m getting a lot more rest in terms of sleeping more, being off the legs more, working on the small things, strength, and so on; so very thankful for this.”
In the women’s equivalent, Britany Anderson copped her first National title with 12.53 seconds clocking to peg back the Tokyo Olympic Games bronze medallist Megan Tapper in 12.60 seconds. Third place went to 2015 World Champion Danielle Williams in 12.66 seconds.
In women’s 400m, Candice McLeod (50.29) won her first National title when she dethroned Stephenie-Ann McPherson (50.49) and Cherokee Young (50.70) to claim the top three places.
The highly fancied Stacey-Ann Williams had to settle for fourth place in 51.02 seconds in a keenly contested one-lap event.
In the men’s category, Jevaughn Powell (45.50) also won his first National title when he edged Nathon Allen (45.64) and the ever-improving Anthony Cox (45.65) in a race that resulted in a number of big names missing out on individual participation.
Karayme Bartley (45.78) was fourth, followed by Javon Francis (45.85), Akeem Bloomfield (45.89), Christopher Taylor (45.91), and schoolboy Gregory Prince eighth in 47.22 seconds after showing obvious signs of discomfort from early in the race.
However, only two Jamaicans have met the entry standard of 44.90 seconds for the event – Taylor, who ran 44.74 seconds at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, and Powell, who ran 44.87 seconds in May. Allen has a world ranking of 39th from the allotted 48 entrants expected for the event. If Taylor is fit, he could be selected for the Jamaican team.
The women’s 800m resulted in Chrisann Gordon-Powell, better known as a 400m runner, outlasting Natoya Goule to win in 2:00.35 minutes to Goule’s 2:00.83 minutes.
Adelle Tracey finished third in 2:10.18 minutes.
Goule has long attained the entry standard of 1:59.50 minutes, but Gordon-Powell and Tracey have not. However, they are well placed within the 48-entrant quota, with world rankings of 34th and 30th, respectively.
In the men’s category, new National record holder Navasky Anderson easily topped his field in 1:48.53 minutes to win his first National title. Anderson has already attained the entry mark.
and then 