Wed | Dec 4, 2024

Well done, Shelly-Ann, Shericka

Published:Friday | October 21, 2022 | 12:10 AMHubert Lawrence/Gleaner Writer
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National sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards at King’s House on Monday.
Kenyon Hemans
National sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards at King’s House on Monday.
National sprinter Shericka Jackson at the Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards at King’s House on Monday.
Kenyon Hemans
National sprinter Shericka Jackson at the Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards at King’s House on Monday.
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Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is a remarkable Jamaican. She is the best in the world at what she does and at the same time, she is a delightful personality with an inspirational story to tell. Her mission is simple: to be the best she can be. No one...

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is a remarkable Jamaican. She is the best in the world at what she does and at the same time, she is a delightful personality with an inspirational story to tell. Her mission is simple: to be the best she can be.

No one will forget her jumping for joy after her upset win of the 100 metres at the 2008 Olympics. At 21, the little Wolmer’s girl from humble circumstances in Waterhouse had conquered the world. Since then, this empress of speed has captured six more global sprint titles.

The cornerstone of greatness is consistency and Fraser-Pryce is consistency personified. She first broke 11 seconds in that triumphant 2008 season. Last year, she pulled even with Merlene Ottey’s world-leading total of 67 sub-11 clockings and now she is heading for a once unthinkable threshold of 80. Along the way, she has won five World titles in the 100, 1 in the 200 and 2 individual Olympic gold medals in the 100m.

In the World Championships 100m, no one, no man or woman, has won more gold medals than she has.

It’s little wonder then that the Government of Jamaica bestowed on Fraser-Pryce the Order of Jamaica national honour on Monday.

This heroine is 35 but she will certainly know that Ottey set her personal best of 10.74 seconds at 36, after an Olympic campaign bedecked with silver medals at 100 and 200 metres in 1996. The 2023 World Athletics Championships are around the corner, set for next August in Budapest, Hungary, and if Fraser-Pryce breaks her personal best of 10.60 there, it may oblige the powers that be to honour her even more.

World 200m champion Shericka Jackson, Order of Distinction, Commander Class, is well deserving of her national honour too. With her victory in Eugene at the 2022 World Championships, she joined Ottey, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Fraser-Pryce as our only winners of that world title.

Her rare versatility saw her win World Championships and Olympic medals over 400 metres in 2015, 2016 and 2019 and in the 100m in 2021 and 2022. History will put her name close to that of Polish icon Irena Szewinska, the winner of Olympic gold in the 200m and 400m and medals in the 100m and the long jump.

At top speed in Eugene, Jackson improved from 21.55 seconds at the Jamaican Championships to 21.45, the second fastest 200-metre time ever.

These performances put Jamaica on centre stage and deserve national recognition. Bravo!