BUDAPEST, Hungary – Shericka Jackson clocked the second fastest time in history and underlined her status when she retained the women’s 200 meters title in commanding fashion at the World Athletics Championships on Friday in Hungary.
The 29-year-old Jamaican delivered a performance for the ages when she ran 21.41 seconds to win from the American pair of Gabby Thomas and newly-minted world 100 meters champion Sha’Carri Richardson, whose bid for a sprint double fizzled.
“One of my main goals this season was to win both 100 and 200,” she said. “It didn’t happen. I said, ‘It’s not supposed to happen’.
“I’m pretty proud, especially for my community. I know my mum was getting on bad.”
Jackson was ahead around the bend and ran away from the rest of the field in the home straight to break the meet record of 21.45 secs she established 12 months ago in the American city of Eugene, Oregon.
It was the second fastest time in history behind the mark of 21.34 set by late American sprint queen Florence Grifiith-Joyner at the 1988 Olympic Games in the South Korean capital of Seoul.
“I feel like I am a living testimony that you can create something if you really want it and never give up,” Jackson said after the race.
“(On Thursday), I ran the curve a little bit conservative, but I think I did pretty good (in this race) – 21.41 is a time I cannot complain about.”
Thomas chased Jackson to the finish with a time of 21.81 for silver, and Richardson was 0.11 slower to take the bronze in a personal best time.
Jackson, the silver medalist in the women’s 100, got a good start from lane six and was quickly up on the shoulder of Julien Alfred of St Lucia before driving past Thomas and Richardson on the outside to take a two-meter lead and leave her rivals in a different “postal code”.
She crossed the line with an emotionless expression on her face that seemed to suggest her disappoint about not breaking the world record.
“Even if I was pretty close to the world record, it was not the thing on my mind when I ran,” Jackson added. “I will continue to work, and I hope I can maintain at least this level, and we will see if the world record will come.
“I wrote a time on my bib, and it was a fast time – 21.2-something. Then, I wrote beside it 21.40 for (this race), and I got close to that. As for the world record, I’m close, I’m close, I’m getting there.”
Of the other Caribbean finalists: Alfred, the 2023 NCAA double sprint champion in the United States, crowned a memorable year with a commendable fourth in 22.05 following her fifth in the 100, and Anthonique Strachan of The Bahamas was sixth in 22.29.
Jackson, Thomas, and Richardson are set for another showdown on the track after Jamaica and the United States qualified earlier on Friday for the women’s 4×100 relay final on Saturday.
In the men’s event, Jackson’s compatriot, Andrew Hudson had to settle for eighth out of nine runners in a time of 20.40, and American Noah Lyles clocked 19.52 and claimed his third successive world 200 title.
When added to his 100 crown a few days earlier, the win in the half lap confirmed his status as the undisputed current king of the sprinting domain right now.
Fellow American Erriyon Knighton used a powerful finish to snatch second in 19.75, with Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo winning his second medal of the week – bronze in 19.81.
Three Caribbean women secured top 10 finishes in the women’s triple jump won for the fourth time by Yulimar Rojas of Venzuela with a distance of 15.08 meters.
Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk of Ukraine claimed silver with a distance of 15m flat, and Leyanis Perez Hernandez of Cuba took bronze with 14.96m.
Shanieka Ricketts of Jamaica finished fourth with a season’s best effort, only three centimeters behind, the same distance between her and fifth-placed Thea La Fond of Dominica, whose 14.90 was a national record.
Kimberly Williams, another Jamaica, grabbed seventh with a season’s best attempt of 14.38.
