Daryll Neita wins his 200m heat next to an empty lane due to the withdrawal of Shericka Jackson, a last-minute withdrawal. In Saint-Denis (north of Paris), on August 4, 2024 Antonin THUILLIER
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Jamaican Shericka Jackson, the reigning two-time world champion in the 200 metres, was declared out of action before the start of the heats in that distance on Sunday at the Paris Games, where American Gabby Thomas and Saint Lucian Julien Alfred advanced to the semi-finals.
It is another blow to Jamaican sprinting, a day after the legendary Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce also withdrew before her 100m semi-final. Jackson, who suffered a worrying injury at a meeting in Hungary in early July, had given up competing in the 100m on Wednesday to concentrate her efforts on the 200m.
Prior to these Games, Jamaica had lost Elaine Thompson-Herah, winner of the 100-200 metre double in the two previous Olympic editions, to injury.
“It’s hard for me to find the words to describe how disappointed I am,” Fraser-Pryce wrote on social media, without explaining why she had withdrawn before her semi-final on Saturday.
For the first time since Seoul in 1988, Jamaica was not represented on the Olympic podium in the women’s 100 metres and its chances are now very compromised in the 200 metres.
Jackson had been injured in Szekesfehervar (Hungary) on July 9, stopping 50 meters from the finish line and screaming before showing obvious signs of pain and putting his hands to his face. He had turned up for that race with a bandage around his left knee.
With Jackson gone, the women’s 200m event in Paris 2024 is losing another of its stars. American Sha’Carri Richardson, world bronze medallist in the distance and who won silver in the 100m on Saturday, will not be there because she failed to qualify in the demanding pre-Olympic tournament in her country.
Everything seems to reinforce the favoritism of the also American Gabby Thomas, who was the fastest overall in the round, with a time of 22 seconds and 20 hundredths.
The Atlanta sprinter arrives in Paris as the fastest of the season (21.78).
Also qualifying for the 200m semi-finals, which take place on Monday before Tuesday’s final, was the surprise winner of the 100m final, Julien Alfred, who won her heat in 22.41.
