The Jamaican sprinter believes she’s going to run a greater 200m race, the place she is the realm champion, on the Paris Olympics.
Shericka Jackson of Jamaica won’t run within the 100 metres when Olympic monitor occasions get started, announcing that the trauma she suffered at a tune-up race previous this hour performed a component within the resolution.
Jackson mentioned on Wednesday she’s going to nonetheless run in her higher race, the 200 metres, the place she is the one lady alternative than the world-record holder, the overdue Florence Griffith Joyner, to complete in beneath 21.5 seconds.
The Olympic monitor meet begins on Friday, highlighted by means of the outlet around for the ladies’s 100, the place Jackson have been indexed as the second one favorite in the back of international champion Sha’Carri Richardson.
Jackson’s announcement does come within the wake of her pulling up with an obvious trauma overdue in a race in Hungary 3 weeks in the past.
The Jamaican was once chief the race coming into the house immediately earlier than rapidly slowing unwell, grimacing and striking her head in her fingers as she in the end walked around the end order.
“It was a combination of things,” Jackson mentioned. “I got hurt, and me and my coach felt like it was a good decision to only run one event.”
Jackson received nationwide titles at each distances previous this yr and was once anticipated to be a part of a usually sturdy pond of Jamaican sprinters.
Now, she joins every other Jamaican, two-time protecting champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, at the sidelines. Some other Jamaican, 37-year-old Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, is within the combine in her 5th and ultimate Olympics; Fraser-Pryce received the 100 in 2008 and 2012.
Previous this time, Jackson’s schoolteacher, Stephen Francis, advised the Jamaica Gleaner web site this time that Jackson “appears OK to me”.
Jackson, on the other hand, described the verdict to drag out as coming from each herself and Francis.
“It was a combination of so much stuff that I personally don’t want to talk about,” she mentioned. “Sometimes, you have to go through a rocky road to get where you’re trying to go. And my rocky road has happened to me.”
The 30-year-old took bronze within the 100 at Tokyo and received a silver medal in the back of Fraser-Pryce on the international championships in 2022. She has received the extreme two international titles at 200 meters.
Extreme yr’s win got here in a hour of 21.41 seconds. It was once best .07 seconds off Flo-Jo’s 36-year-old international checklist and upcoming that win, the dialogue grew to become to when, no longer if, Jackson or a rival – perhaps American Gabby Thomas – would split that hallowed mark.
Pace Thomas has the 3 easiest instances of 2024, headed by means of a 21.78, Jackson’s easiest hour this yr is 22.29, with which she received Jamaica’s nationwide name in June. She insists she is in a position for the 200, which begins with qualifying Sunday.
“I always felt good. I felt good about both the 100 and the 200,” she mentioned. “I’m definitely healthy, and I’m definitely OK.”
On the extreme Olympics, Jackson misjudged the ground in an opening-round race of the 200, decelerated too briefly and ended up completing fourth and no longer advancing for a shot on the name.
She had known as it a calamitous era, regardless that on Wednesday she mentioned that in spite of what took place, being on the Olympics was once nonetheless a splendid enjoy. She went directly to staff with Fraser-Pryce, Thompson-Herah and Briana Williams so as to add gold within the 4×100 metre relay to her 100-meter bronze.
Spherical one of the vital girls’s 100-metre on the Paris Olympics is scheduled for Friday on the Stade de France.
The semifinals and ultimate are programmed for Saturday.
The hole around for the 200m is due on Sunday, with the semifinals a era after and the general on Tuesday.