File Photo: Shericka Jackson running at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. Jackson ran a personal best 49.99s at the World Championships in Beijing, China last month.
Entering her first and the 15th IAAF World Athletics Championships in Beijing, China, few gave credence to the fact that one Shericka Jackson had the goods in her locker to match up with the world’s best, at her international championship debut.
But lest we forget, Jackson herself made it clear what her intentions were for the 2015 season when she spoke to Yardie Sports in back April 2015.
“I am looking to make the World Champs team, because knowing that when I was a junior athlete, I did not get a Junior World Championship medal. I am satisfied with my times thus far, and each time I run, my aim is to run faster and build on my new personal best,” she said back then.
Jackson emerged from the championships, with not only a personal best time, but also an individual medal, as she pocketed the bronze medal in one of the best championship finals in years and the first sub-50 clocking of her career.
Chasing two of the favourities for a medal, Alyson Felix who secured the Gold in a world leading 49.26 and young Shaunae Miller of The Bahamas who finished strongly to grab a deserved silver medal in a personal best of 49.67, Shericka Jackson lead home a quartet of Jamaicans in lifetime best of 49.99 which ranks her fifth best behind the top two in the race, and American duo of Sanya Richards-Ross, 49.95 seconds and Francena Mccorory, 49.83 seconds, this year.
To the credit of Jackson and that outstanding achievement, her coach Stephen Francis, at the MVP track club, suggested that Jackson can run 47 seconds in a few years. This has sent tongues wagging as the top 400m runners of the last decade have not been able to achieve such a feat.
“She is not a 100m type sprinter, but by running the 400m it will help her 200m when we decide that she is going to run the [event].I also believe that she can run 47 seconds in a couple of years and we’ll make a good go at it and see what happens,” he mentioned in an interview at the recently concluded Championships.
The world record currently stands at 47.60 seconds, by former East Germany star Marita Koch set back in 1985.
The closest to her is Jarmila Kratochvílová of Czechoslovakia who ran 47.99 second two years before in 1983.
This is one of the records in track and field that many believe will not be surpassed. Felix, who had run the fastest women’s 400m time for three years, returned later to storm to an brilliant 47.72 which was the third-fastest relay leg in history and the fastest ever seen at the IAAF World Championships.
If Felix should stick around the 400m, with the other top four athletes, and a young Jackson set to improve leaps and bounds, who could tell if the record will remain standing?
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