Week in Review: Jackson defies doubters
Sprinter's switch from 400 to shorter sprints pays dividends
I think she needs to focus on the 400.
That was one of the posts I read about Shericka Jackson after the 27-year-old Jamaican had finished third in the women’s 100 meters in the Prefontaine Classic at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field on May 28.
The bronze medalist in the 100 in the Olympic Games in Tokyo last summer, Jackson had run a solid 10.92 seconds in the Prefontaine meet, but finishing behind second-place Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S. – albeit in the same time – was too much for some people to handle.
It was OK to lose to countrywoman and two-time defending Olympic 100 and 200 champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, who finished first in 10.79. But it was unacceptable to finish behind Richardson, who had performed poorly at the end of last season after missing the Olympic Games because she had tested positive for cannabis after winning the 100 in the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Fast forward to Sunday, when Jackson won the women’s 200 meters in 21.55 to complete an impressive sprint double in the Jamaican Championships in Kingston.
Jackson’s time was fastest in the world this year, the third-fastest in history, and it occurred not long after Abby Steiner had run a world-leading 21.77 in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field.
It also left her well ahead of second-place Thomson-Herah (22.05) and third-place Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (22.14).
“Honestly, I didn’t expect to run this fast,” Jackson told World Athletics. “I knew I was in good shape and when I spoke to the coach yesterday, he wanted a proper execution and the curve was one of the areas discussed. I think I did well on the curve, my coach told me to run the first 100 hard and do whatever I want afterwards. I am just grateful.”
Only American Florence Griffith Joyner (21.34 in 1988) and Thompson-Herah (21.53 last year) have run faster in the 200 than Jackson, who won the 100 in 10.77 on Friday to defeat a field that included runner-up Kemba Nelson (10.88) and third-place Thompson-Herah (10.89).
The top three finishers advanced to the World Championships, which will be held at Hayward Field from July 15-24.
Fraser-Pryce, who ran 10.70 in a first-round heat of the 100 on Thursday, did not run in the final. She has an automatic bye into the World Championships as the defending World champion in the event.
Jackson surprised some track and field experts last year when she decided to turn her attention to the 100 and 200 meters after previously winning bronze medals in the 400 in the 2015 and ’19 World Championships and in the 2016 Olympic Games.
She was part of a 1-2-3 Jamaican sweep of the 100 in the Olympics behind Thompson-Herah and Fraser-Pryce. But she inexplicably failed to advance out of a first-round heat of the 200 in the Games.
Anyone who overreacted to Jackson’s performance in the 100 at the Prefontaine meet got a reminder of her talent when she ran 21.91 to easily defeat second-place Thompson-Herah (22.25) in the Golden Gala Pietro Menea meet in Rome on June 9.
Then came the Jamaican Championships, where her decision to drop the 400 in favor of the 100 and 200 paid big dividends.
Don’t count her out: Based on recent results, it might be easy to downplay Thompson-Herah’s chances of winning the women’s 100 and 200 in the World Championships.
After all, Fraser-Pryce leads the yearly world list in the 100 with a pair of 10.67-second clockings, and Jackson and Steiner are way ahead of her on the 200 list.
However, it was only last year that Thompson-Herah finished third in the 100 and 200 in Jamaican Championships before posting large margins of victory in winning the 100 in 10.61 and the 200 in 21.53 in the Olympics.
Blast from the past: Yohan Blake, whose brilliant sprinting in his early twenties took place in the large shadow of Usain Bolt, won the men’s 100 in 9.85 in the Jamaican Championships on Friday.
The time was the fastest the 32-year-old Blake had run since 2012. That was the year he was the Olympic silver medalist in the 100 and 200 behind Bolt, who had won both events in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and who would achieve an unprecedented third sprint double in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Oblique Seville and Ackeem Blake – no relation to Johan – finished second and third in 9.88 and 9.93, respectively.
Johan Blake moved into a tie for third on the yearly world list with his performance. He also finished second in the 200 in 20.31 on Sunday.
Blake set his personal best of 9.69 in the 100 in 2012 and ran his best of 19.26 in the 200 in 2011. He is tied for second on the all-time world performer list in the 100 and he ranks second in the 200.
Bolt who retired after the World Championships in 2017, set the world records of 9.58 in the 100 and 19.19 in the 200 in the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
Bad time for a poor performance, again: Defending Olympic champion Hansle Parchment won the men’s 110-meter high hurdles in 13.14 in the Jamaican Championships on Sunday, finishing ahead of second-place Rasheed Broadbell and third-place Orlando Bennett, who ran 13.20 and 13.28, respectively.
However, the biggest story to come out of the race was Omar McLeod’s eighth-place finish in 13.54.
McLeod, who had a season best of 13.17 entering the meet, got off to a great start and led the field over the first two hurdles. But the 2016 Olympic and 2017 World champion came down awkwardly after the second and third barriers and never recovered his rhythm after that.
This is the second year in a row that the man who holds the Jamaican record of 12.90 has performed poorly at the national championships. He hit the first two hurdles in the final of last year’s meet and eventually jogged across the finish line with a time of 16.22.
Dominance personified: In a meet that was loaded with a slew of superb performances in the sprints and hurdles, Ryan Crouser managed to stand out with his performance Friday in the men’s shot put in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.
The world record-holder and two-time Olympic champion won the event with a best of 23.12 meters (75 feet 10¼ inches). But he also had puts of 23.11 (75-10), 23.01 (75-6), and 22.98 (75-4¾).
His winning put was tied for the fourth-farthest in history, with his second-, third-, and fourth-best efforts ranking sixth, tied for 10th, and 12th on the all-time world performance lists.
The 6-foot-7, 313-pound Crouser, who set the world record of 23.37 (76-8¼) in the U.S. Olympic Trials last year, now has the three best puts in history, 12 of the top 15, and 15 of the top 21.
Building her legacy: Sydney McLaughlin might never dominate the all-time list in the women’s 400 hurdles the way Crouser currently does in the men’s shot put. But the Olympic gold medalist’s world record of 51.41 in the U.S. championships on Saturday gives her four of the five fastest times in history and five of the top nine.
McLaughlin set a world record of 51.90 in the Olympic Trials last year and she lowered that mark to 51.46 in winning the Olympic title ahead of Dalilah Muhammad, who ran 51.58.
She also ran 51.61 in the Music City Track Carnival at Vanderbilt University on June 5.
I expected that mark to be disallowed because it turned out the sixth flight of hurdles were placed on the wrong mark on the track. But World Athletics, the governing body for track and field around the globe, is including the mark on its statistical lists. My guess is the organization feels the misplaced hurdle hurt McLaughlin’s performance more than it helped her, as she had to stutter-step in her approach to the sixth hurdle in order to clear it properly.
Rapid improvement: Champion Allison of the University of Florida shocked many fans on Saturday when he challenged heavily favored Michael Norman in the final 30 meters of the men’s 400 in the U.S. championships.
Allison, who had run 46.05 in his first-round heat on Thursday, and 44.80 in his semifinal on Friday, ran 43.70 in the final to finish second to Norman, who ran 43.56.
Norman’s time was the fastest in the world this year and the 13th best in history, while Allison’s performance moved him to 10th on the all-time world performer list.
It was the fourth personal best of the season for the sophomore who had run 45.40 for Alabama last year before transferring to Florida.
Allison broke 45 seconds for the first time when he ran 44.74 in winning the Southeastern Conference title at the University of Mississippi on May 14. He bettered that mark with a 44.29 clocking in a semifinal of the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field on June 8 before running 44.41 to finish second in the final to Randolph Ross of North Carolina A&T, who ran 44.13.
Ross, who won his second consecutive title in the NCAA meet, placed third in 44.17 on Saturday.
An Instagram post by Allison about his performance began with the following: “Great weekend at the USA National Championship came out with a new PR (43.70) which is number 10 all time in world history placing 2nd.”
Victorious rebound: Melissa Jefferson of Coastal Carolina University bounced back from a disappointing eighth-place finish in the NCAA Championships by winning the women’s 100 in the U.S. championships on Saturday.
The winner of the 60-meter dash in the NCAA indoor meet won the final of the USATF meet with a wind-aided time of 10.69 to defeat runner-up Aleia Hobbs by three hundredths of a second.
Hobbs had edged Jefferson, 10.81 to 10.82, in a semifinal earlier in the afternoon in a race in which both of them ran personal bests.
Jefferson’s performance, which cut .06 seconds from her previous best, came a day after she had won her first-round qualifying heat in 11.04.
Select company: Trevor Bassitt and Khallifah Rosser became the newest members of the sub-48 club in the men’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles on Sunday when they ran 47.47 and 47.65 while finishing second and third in the U.S. championships.
Their performances came behind Rai Benjamin’s winning effort of 47.04 and moved them to 11th and 14th on the all-time U.S. performer list. They are also the third- and fourth-fastest intermediate hurdlers in the world this year behind Benjamin and Olympic bronze medalist Alison dos Santos of Brazil, who has run 47.23.
Karsten Warholm of Norway, who set the world record of 45.94 in winning the Olympic title last August, has not recorded a time in the intermediate hurdles this season.
He started his season-opening race in a Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, on June 5, but pulled up after the first hurdle with an injury to his right hamstring.
Emotions running high: Noah Lyles displayed superb top-end speed in coming from behind to win the men’s 200 meters in 19.67 in the U.S. championships on Sunday.
The defending World champion was in no better than third place coming off the curve, but he moved into second midway down the home straightway and passed 18-year-old wunderkind Erriyon Knighton approximately 10 meters from the finish line.
Lyles, ever the showman, was so confident about winning that he smiled, stuck out his tongue, turned his head to his left and pointed at the timing display board on the infield before finishing two hundredths of a second ahead of Knighton.
Fred Kerley, who had won the 100 in 9.77 on Friday, finished third in 19.83 after coming off the turn in seventh place. Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek placed fourth in 19.89 and qualified for the World Championships because Lyles has an automatic bye into the meet because he is the defending champion.
Things got interesting afterward when Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports conducted a trackside interview with the top three finishers.
Lyles began the interview by admitting Knighton got the better of him around the curve. But he said he wasn’t worried because he knew his top-end speed was better that Knighton’s.
“I said, ‘I’m going to catch him. It’s just going to take the whole rest of the 100.’ That’s what I did.”
Johnson then asked Knighton, who had run a yearly world-leading time of 19.49 on April 30, what he had learned from the race in regards to the World Championships.
“Come back and win,” he said in emphatic fashion. “Job’s not finished. It’s never finished.”
He then quickly walked away and as he did, Lyles said in his direction, “Ain’t finished!”
Johnson then turned to the 27-year-old Kerley, who seemed bemused by the interaction between the 24-year-old Lyles and Knighton.
“I feel good. I feel blessed,” he said. “It’s a double.”
More forgiving schedule: The schedule for the World Championships should give Kerley a better chance of contending for a title in the 200 as there will be a nearly 45-hour break between the final of the men’s 100 on July 16 and first-round heats of the 200 on July 18.
Furthermore, the semifinals of the men’s 200 will be run on July 19, with the final two days later.
The final of the men’s 200 on Sunday was Kerley’s sixth race in about 72 hours.
He had run a first-round heat of the 100 on Thursday, followed by a semifinal and final on Friday. He then ran in a first-round heat of the 200 on Saturday, followed by a semifinal and final on Sunday.
Slowed by injury: Gabby Thomas, one of the bright new fresh faces who came to the fore in the U.S. Olympic Trials last year, finished eighth in the women’s 200 in the U.S. championships on Sunday while contending with a hamstring injury.
The Olympic bronze medalist had run a scintillating 21.61 to win the 200 in the Olympic Trials, but she ran 22.47 on Sunday.
Many track and field fans were billing the women’s 200 as the battle between Gabby and Abby (Steiner) before the meet, but unfortunately, it failed to materialize.
Beyond puzzled: I am not sure what happened to Sha’Carri Richardson in the U.S. championships, but her performances made me wonder if she is ever going to fulfill the immense promise she possesses.
Richardson, who won the Olympic Trials last year before a positive test for cannabis nullified that result, had run a season best of 10.85 in the 100 in finishing second to Aleia Hobbs in the NYC Grand Prix in New York on June 12. But she was eliminated in the first round of the 100 on Thursday when she ran 11.31 to finish fifth in her heat.
She placed second in 22.69 in her first-round heat of the 200 on Saturday, but was eliminated in the semifinals on Sunday when she finished fifth in her race in 22.47.
Richardson ran a world under-20 record of 10.75 to win the 2019 NCAA title as an LSU freshman and lowered her personal best to 10.72 last year to move to sixth on the all-time World performer list. She has also run 22.00 in the 200, which is her secondary event.
It is obvious she has enormous talent. Less clear is whether she will reach her fullest potential.
Waiting in the wings: USA Track & Field does not plan to release the names of those sprinters who will comprise the relay pools for the men’s and women’s 400 and 1,600 relays in the World Championships until July 5 or 6.
However, Tim Hall, an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky, wrote in a text that Abby Steiner will be available if needed.
Steiner is best known for her exploits in the 200, but she had splits of 48.78 and 48.92 while running for Kentucky’s NCAA champion 1,600 relay team that ran a collegiate record of 3:21.93 in winning the Southeastern Conference title on May 14.
Britton Wilson of the University of Arkansas, who will compete in the women’s 400 hurdles in the World Championships, is another athlete who turned in some noteworthy splits while running on her school’s 1,600 relay team.
Wilson ran a 48.60 anchor leg in the SEC Championships and she had a 49.55 split in the NCAA meet. She also ran 50.05 to win the SEC title in the 400.
Rolling on: Camryn Rogers and Mykolas Alekna, who set collegiate records in the women’s hammer throw and the men’s discus for UC Berkeley this season, won Canadian and Lithuanian titles in their respective events over the weekend.
Rogers won the women’s hammer throw in the Canadian Outdoor Championships in Langley with a throw of 75.33 (247-1).
Rogers capped a superb collegiate career in the NCAA Championships on June 9 when she threw a Canadian and collegiate record of 77.67 (254-10) to win her third consecutive title.
Alekna, the son of two-time Olympic and World champion Virgilijus Alekna, set a personal best of 69.00 (226-4) in winning the Lithuanian title in Siauliai on Sunday.
That mark, which topped his previous best of 68.73 (225-6) that he threw in setting a collegiate record in the Pacific 12 Conference Championships on May 15, gave him a victory over Andrius Gudzius, the No. 3-ranked thrower in the world last year by Track & Field News.
Medal contender: Rogers currently ranks fourth on the yearly world list in the hammer, but one of the women ranked ahead of her recently announced that she had undergone season-ending knee surgery.
Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland, a three-time Olympic and four-time World champion, sustained a leg injury earlier this month after sprinting after – and catching – someone who broke into her car.
Wlodarczyk set the world record of 82.98 (272-3) in 2016.
On the rise: Daniel Stahl of Sweden took over the yearly world lead in the men’s discus when he won the Swedish Club Championships in Uppsala with a throw of 71.47 (234-5) on June 21.
It was the second farthest throw of the defending Olympic and World champion’s career. He raised the Swedish record to 71.86 (235-9) in 2019 to move into a tie for fourth on the all-time World performer list.
Victorious return: Marcell Jacobs of Italy returned to competition last week when he won the men’s 100 in 10.12 in the national championships in Rieti.
The defending Olympic champion had run 10.04 in a season-opening meet in Savona, Italy, on May 18, but he suffered a gluteal muscle injury during that race and it had forced him to withdraw from the Prefontaine Classic, as well as the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Rome on June 9 and the Bislett Games in Oslo on June 16.
Jacobs is scheduled to run in the 100 tomorrow in a Diamond League meet in Stockholm.
Jacobs once again DNS in Stockholm today.