Francis not surprised at rapid improvement by Jackson

EUGENE, Oregon:

As impressive as Shericka Jackson’s performances were at the JAAA National Senior and Junior Championships three weeks ago, coach Stephen Francis says that her rapid improvement in her second sprinting season has not been shocking and is anticipating her reaping the rewards at the current World Athletics Championships.

Jackson will start her campaign today in the women’s 100 metres heats at 7:10 p.m. Jamaica time with Francis optimistic of her chances at the championships, in particular in the 100m with improvements made to the start of her race. It is an assessment also shared by his brother Paul who coaches her.

“While observing her training and speaking to Paul (Francis) I think he feels that her performance is at least as good as anybody in the past and so I think he expects the same type of result. We don’t know how people are going to fare and place and so on because you can only affect your lane,” Francis said.

“However, I think she’s going to perform a lot better than she did at the trials, especially in the 100m. I think the first part of her race is so far beyond recognition. I expect her, and Paul expects her to execute well and if she does well then it will be difficult for a lot of people to withstand her.”

Jackson captured her first 100m national championship weeks ago clocking a season’s best of 10.77 seconds with Kemba Nelson second in 10.88 and double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson Herah placing third in 10.89.

In her first full season last year, Jackson earned bronze at the Tokyo Olympic Games in the 100m as part of the Jamaican sweep with Thompson Herah mining gold and four-time World champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce getting silver.

But Francis is not at all surprised at how quickly Jackson has improved in her second season doing the sprint double, with her 400m experience being valuable.

“Once you have got the kind of power that she has and the explosiveness towards the latter part of her 400m race it was obvious that this would be the result,” Francis said. Jackson has four sub-11-second times this season leading up to the championships compared to last season where she had three leading up to the Tokyo Olympics.

And although pleased with how quickly she has progressed, he feels that Jackson can ascend to even greater heights.

“It appears that she still has a lot of progress to make and I suspect over the next two years, she will definitely can get specifically better,” Francis said.

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com