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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Jackson beaten, but Clayton leads Jamaican sweep of women’s 400mH

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411 days ago
20240531
Rushell Clayton of Jamaica runs to victory in the women’s 400 metres hurdles during the Bislett Games, the sixth leg of the World Athletics Diamond League series, on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. (World Athletics photo)

Rushell Clayton of Jamaica runs to victory in the women’s 400 metres hurdles during the Bislett Games, the sixth leg of the World Athletics Diamond League series, on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. (World Athletics photo)

Courtesy World Athletics

OSLO – The two-year un­beat­en streak of women’s world 200 me­tres cham­pi­on Sh­er­ic­ka Jack­son came to an end dur­ing the Bislett Games, the sixth leg of the World Ath­let­ics Di­a­mond League se­ries, on Thurs­day in Nor­way.

The 29-year-old Ja­maican sprint queen was mak­ing her sec­ond Di­a­mond League ap­pear­ance of the sea­son at the Bislett Sta­dion in the Nor­we­gian cap­i­tal of Oslo and was seek­ing to im­prove on her per­for­mance two weeks ago in Mo­roc­co.

But she fin­ished a dis­tant fifth, clock­ing 22.97 sec­onds – 0.15 slow­er than her run in Ra­bat-Mar­rakech – in a race that the top three fin­ish­ers all ran sea­son’s best times to be able to stand on the podi­um, and it will mean she will have her work cut out in the build-up to the Ja­maica Olympic Tri­als next month.

Amer­i­can Brit­tany Brown, the 2019 world sil­ver medal­list, won in a time of 22.32 secs with Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith of the Ivory Coast com­ing sec­ond in 22.36, and Daryll Nei­ta of Great Britain tak­ing third in 22.50.

Com­pa­tri­ots Rushell Clay­ton, An­drenette Knight, and Janieve Rus­sell eased the dis­ap­point­ment for Ja­maican track & field fans of the set­back for Jack­son – the sec­ond fastest woman ever over 200m – when they fin­ished 1-2-3 in the women’s 400m hur­dles.

Clay­ton was slight­ly off her sea­son’s best time in tough weath­er con­di­tions, but she led the race from the start and pulled away in the fi­nal straight to fin­ish in 54.02 secs with Knight and Rus­sell run­ning sea­son’s best times of 54.63 and 55.07 re­spec­tive­ly, to fol­low her home.

“I nev­er ex­pect­ed con­di­tions like that, but nev­er­the­less, it was a good race,” she said post-race. “My ex­e­cu­tion went well, and I can­not ask for more than to win. It is al­ways good to win. Each race is a chal­lenge, and I am work­ing to­wards a big­ger goal.

“When­ev­er these ladies de­cide to com­pete, I will be there to do the same, to com­pete. My next plans: to train, train, train… and I need to do the na­tion­al cham­pi­onships.

“I am lit­er­al­ly train­ing through all these meets. I have train­ing [on Fri­day], the next day, I do what my coach de­cides. It’s hurt­ing. My main goal is to get to the Olympics and to win a medal. My last and ul­ti­mate goal of the sea­son.”

An­oth­er Ja­maican, Na­toya Goule-Top­pin al­so ran a sea­son’s best time of one minute, 59.10 sec­onds to fin­ish sec­ond in the women’s 800m.

Pru­dence Sek­godiso of South Africa proved that her re­cent win in Mo­roc­co was not a fluke when she came out on top once again in the two-lap race.

The 22-year-old had a com­fort­able lead with 200 me­tres re­main­ing and held on to win in 1 min, 58.66 secs from a fast-fin­ish­ing Goule-Top­pin.

For­mer Olympic and world cham­pi­on, Ki­rani James of Grena­da pro­vid­ed the oth­er podi­um fin­ish among Eng­lish-speak­ing Caribbean ath­letes when he ran a sea­son’s best 44.58 and fin­ished sec­ond in the men’s 400 me­tres.

World Cham­pi­onship sil­ver medal­list Matt Hud­son-Smith of Great Britain charged away from the field to break his own Eu­ro­pean record and set a per­son­al best of 44.07, with Ver­non Nor­wood of the Unit­ed States run­ning a sea­son’s best 44.68 to take third; while Rusheen Mc­Don­ald of Ja­maica fin­ished at the back of the eight-man field with a time of 47.60.

Sa­da Williams of Bar­ba­dos al­so en­dured a set­back when she too, fin­ished fifth in the women’s 400 in a clash of the podi­um from last year’s World Cham­pi­onships in the Hun­gar­i­an cap­i­tal of Bu­dapest, al­though she clocked a sea­son’s best 50.71.

World Cham­pi­onships sil­ver medal­list Na­talia Kacz­marek of Poland led at the half-way stage, but World cham­pi­on Mar­ilei­dy Pauli­no of the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic con­tin­ued to rule the event when she kicked hard on the fi­nal bend and en­tered the home straight with a slight lead to forge ahead and win in a world-lead­ing 49.30, on­ly 0.07 shy of the meet record.

Kacz­marek was re­ward­ed with a sea­son’s best of 49.80 for sec­ond, and Alex­is Holmes of the Unit­ed States was third in 50.40.

Else­where, Fedrick Dacres of Ja­maica fin­ished sixth with a toss of 65.06 me­tres in the men’s dis­cus, which fea­tured the win­ners of the past five glob­al ti­tles.

But new world record-hold­er Myko­las Alek­na of Lithua­nia came out on top, pro­duc­ing his fourth com­pe­ti­tion of the year be­yond 70 me­tres and tak­ing down a meet record that had stood to his fa­ther Vir­gili­jus for the past 17 years.

World and Olympic cham­pi­on Daniel Stahl took an ear­ly lead with 66.26m, but Alek­na re­spond­ed in the sec­ond round with 70.91 – a 40-cen­time­tre im­prove­ment on the meet record and a mark that re­mained the best of the night.

Matt Den­ny of Aus­tralia moved in­to sec­ond place with a third-round throw of 67.61, and Stahl im­proved to 66.80 in the same round, but Alek­na notched his fifth vic­to­ry of the year.

The Ja­maican pair of Ro­han Wat­son and for­mer world cham­pi­on Yohan Blake fin­ished sixth and sev­enth re­spec­tive­ly, in the men’s 100.

Wat­son clocked a sea­son’s best time of 10.23, and Blake ran 10.29, but the first four fin­ish­ers all clocked sea­son’s best time to reach the podi­um.

Reign­ing Com­mon­wealth Games cham­pi­on Akani Sim­bine of South Africa pow­ered to the win in 9.94 af­ter Je­re­mi­ah Azu of Great Britain led at half-way, but then pulled up with what ap­peared to be a slight in­jury.

Sim­bine came through for the win, five hun­dredths-of-a-sec­ond ahead of Hakim Sani Brown of Ja­maica, with Em­manuel Es­eme of Cameroon run­ning 10.01 to take third, two hun­dredths-of-a-sec­ond ahead of Olympic cham­pi­on Mar­cell Ja­cobs of Italy.

CMC

Se­lect­ed re­sults

Women’s 400 me­tres

1 Mar­ilei­dy Pauli­no (Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic) 49.30 sec­onds [sea­son’s best]

2 Na­talia Kacz­marek (Poland) 49.80 [sea­son’s best]

3 Alex­is Holmes (Unit­ed States) 50.40

5 Sa­da Williams (Bar­ba­dos) 50.71 [sea­son’s best]

Men’s 400 me­tres

1 Matthew Hud­son-Smith (Great Britain) 44.07 secs [area record, per­son­al best]

2 Ki­rani James (Grena­da) 44.58 [sea­son’s best]

3 Ver­non Nor­wood (Unit­ed States) 44.68 [sea­son’s best]

8 Rusheen Mc­Don­ald (Ja­maica) 47.60

Women’s 200 me­tres

1 Brit­tany Brown (Unit­ed States) 22.32 secs [sea­son’s best]

2 Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith (Ivory Coast) 22.36 [sea­son’s best]

3 Daryll Nei­ta (Great Britain) 22.50 [sea­son’s best]

5 Sh­er­ic­ka Jack­son (Ja­maica) 22.97

Men’s dis­cus

1 Myko­las Alek­na (Lithua­nia) 70.91 me­tres [meet record]

2 Matthew Den­ny (Aus­tralia) 67.61

3 Daniel Stahl (Swe­den) 66.80

6 Fedrick Dacres (Ja­maica) 65.06

Men’s 100 me­tres

1 Akani Sim­bine (South Africa) 9.94 secs [sea­son’s best]

2 Ab­dul Hakim Sani Brown (Japan) 9.99 [sea­son’s best]

3 Em­manuel Es­eme (Cameroon) 10.01 [sea­son’s best]

6 Ro­han Wat­son (Ja­maica) 10.23 [sea­son’s best]

7 Yohan Blake (Ja­maica) 10.29

Women’s 800 me­tres

1 Pru­dence Sek­godiso (South Africa) 1 minute, 59.66 sec­onds

2 Na­toya Goule-Top­pin (Ja­maica) 1 min, 59.10 secs

3 Cationa Bis­set (Aus­tralia) 1:59.29

Women’s 400 me­tres hur­dles

1 Rushell Clay­ton (Ja­maica) 54.02 secs

2 An­drenette Knight (Ja­maica) 54.63 [sea­son’s best]

3 Janieve Rus­sell (Ja­maica) 55.07 [sea­son’s best]

CMC


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