Track women continue to lead, good signs for men

FROM CAREER-DEFINING and history-making moments to strong championship debuts, senior athletics in 2022 saw the best that Jamaica had to offer.

There was also a glimpse into the future that awaits Jamaicans and a crowning glory for an Olympian 10 years on.

At the World Athletic Championships last July in Eugene, Oregon, it was the women who led the way, winning nine of the 10 medals accumulated, meeting team Jamaica’s technical leader Maurice Wilson’s double-digit target.

For many reasons, the championships thrilled us but they also completed specific sporting arcs for athletes and exemplified greatness.

In the case of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, there was the demonstrated of the age-old adage, ‘form is temporary but class is permanent’.

Fraser-Pryce was unrelenting, clocking seven sub 10.7-second 100-metre times, including the 10.67 performance which saw her capturing her fifth 100m world title in a championship record.

Along the way, Fraser-Pryce also captured her fifth Diamond League 100m title and was a finalist for the World Athletics Women Athlete of the Year.

At 36 years old, Fraser-Pryce says she hopes to have more fun in 2023 after a season where she enjoyed herself more than ever.

SCINTILLATING FASHION

Shericka Jackson rose from the ashes of that shocking 200m elimination at the Tokyo Olympics to capture her first major global title in scintillating fashion. The former 400-metre specialist, won the 200m title in 21.45, a championship record and the second fastest time in history. It was the moment that truly signalled Jackson’s arrival as a world-class sprinter. She would also add her first Diamond League 200m title to her resume and her first nomination for World Athletics Women’s Athlete of the Year.

While double sprint Olympic champion Elaine Thompson Herah, in her first year under the direction of husband, Derron, could not maintain the exquisite form she showed in 2021, she did mine a World Championship bronze in the 100m and took the sprint double at the Commonwealth Games.

Shanieka Ricketts captured back-to-back World Championship silver medals in the triple jump, completing her road to redemption after barely missing out on the Olympic podium a year earlier.

For some, 2022 was a year of firsts. It saw Britany Anderson in her second professional season, making her World Championships debut. That debut was memorable, the sprint hurdler, earning her first major global medal, a silver and setting the national record for the 100m hurdles with a superb 12.31 clocking in the semi-finals.

There were also World Championships debuts for the likes of Charokee Young, Kemba Nelson, Ackelia Smith and Lamara Distin. Smith, in the triple jump, and Distin, in the High Jump, made their first major global championship finals. Distin would go on to win her first major title at the Commonwealth Games in August.

RECORD-BREAKING PERFORMANCES

The world also bore witness to record-breaking performances. Olympic and World 400m hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone twice broke the world record this year, clocking 51.41 seconds in June and a month later lowering it significantly to 50.68 at the World Championships. Tobi Amusan shocked everyone by smashing the 100-metre hurdles world record in the semi-final, clocking 12.12 and going faster in the final but assisted heavily by the wind.

For the men, the results were mixed but it also displayed the promise that the future holds.

Sprinter Oblique Seville made his first major global championship final in the 100m at the World Championships, placing fourth. He clocked seven sub-10-second times last year, topped by his personal best of 9.86 in May. Fortune did not favour Olympic 110m hurdles champion, Hansle Parchment, unable to compete in the World Championship final because of injury. He also had to pull out of the Commonwealth Games as well.

However, Rasheed Broadbell emerged as a contender in the hurdles, winning his first major title at the Commonwealth Games after narrowly missing out on the World Championship final. He also got the better of reigning world champion Grant Holloway twice on the circuit this season, ensuring that fight to get on the 2023 world championship team will be the most competitive to date.

Olympian Kaliese Spencer-Carter could not have asked for a better Christmas gift as she will be bestowed her first Olympic medal 10 years after the London 2012 Olympics. This came after Russian athlete Natalya Antyukh, who won the 400m hurdles title was officially disqualified and her records expunged for the use of a prohibited substance or method, based on database evidence by the Athletics Integrity Unit. Spencer-Carter, who finished fourth in that final, will be upgraded to silver, a moment that she called a blessing in a 2020 interview when the possibility of that result came to light.

As the performances get better, so does the standard of qualifying, with both the 2024 Olympic Games and 2023 World Championship qualifying standards becoming more challenging.

The year 2022 was one in which, the women led the way, men’s sprinting showed some promise, and an increase in the number of participants in global field events was on the rise.

Jamaican athletics continues to be strong and still holds promise for more.

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com