Odds on Jackson for 200 World Record

WHEN MERLENE Ottey set the last of her seven national 200-metre records 16 years ago, it was clear that even that performance - 21.64 seconds - could have been improved. Then 31, Ottey battled a headwind gusting at one metre per second in Brussels, Belgium. The world record - 21.34 by Florence Griffith Joyner - was far away in those days, but in 2021 and 2022, it has been brought into reach by Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson.

Thompson-Herah lowered Ottey’s standard to 21.53 seconds last year at the Olympics. This July, at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Jackson went even closer, with a super time of 21.45 seconds to secure her first global gold medal. Speaking six weeks later in Zurich, Switzerland, Jackson revealed that 21.45 was her target for 2022.

“I went back home after the Worlds, and I wrote another time because I definitely want to go faster, and I think I’m capable of doing that.”

Asked if her new goal would break the world record, she replied that it was ‘definitely round about there’.

At the National Championships, she zoomed home in 21.55 seconds. Beyond that, her runner-up finish in the Eugene 100 and her World and Olympic medals from the 400 suggest quick times in the 200 metres. In Eugene, she won the 200 by almost 0.4.

Needless to say, the 21.45 is the second fastest time ever run.

Even so, an all-round advance is required. Griffith Joyner was faster in the 100, with her three best times being 10.49, 10.61 and 10.62 seconds respectively. Her 400 best 50.89 pales beside Jackson’s 49.47, but the American revealed her true ability over the distance with a 48.1-second anchor for the USA in the 1988 Olympic 4x400 final.

Shericka’s best relay split time is 49.4.

In the meantime, a return to top form for Thompson-Herah might give the double-double Olympic champion a chance at the record. Like Shericka in Zurich, the 30-year-old Thompson-Herah had looked optimistically at Griffith Joyner’s long-standing mark after her 2021 Olympic triumph in Tokyo. “To be honest, I would say the 200 because I ran 21.53 not getting enough recovery from running rounds the previous day, so I would say the 200 more than the 100,” in response to questions about world records in both sprint events.

Her reasoning didn’t sound farfetched.

The sprint schedule will suit her perfectly. World Athletics has restored the rest day between the 100 final and the 200 heats for next year’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. In addition, the 200 heats, semis and finals are set for separate days.

For now, the favourite to reach the record first is Jackson. At 28, she is the youngest of Jamaica’s super sprinters. Moreover, 2023 will be just her second full season of dedicated sprint training. As she matures in the MVP Track Club speed development programme that launched Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce and Thompson-Herah to stardom, the record might one day be hers.