More silver for Jamaica
published:
Wednesday | August 20, 2008
Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
Jamaica's Shericka Williams (centre) claims the silver medal in the women's 400m yesterday. - Charles Pitt/Freelance Photographer
BEIJING:
JAMAICA'S ATHLETES at the 2008 Beijing Olympics have all been feeding off the positive energy of world 100 metres record holder Usain Bolt.
The latest to do so was Shericka Williams who, along with Great Britain's Christine Ohuruogu, crashed the 400 metres party of Jamaica-born American Sanya Richards.
Richards, the dominant woman in the 400m for the last three years, was considered one of the safest bets for gold in the track and field, but yesterday was made to look ordinary by Ohuruogu and Williams.
Williams produced a career-best 49.69 to mine silver while the Briton won gold in a season-best 49.62 as Richards was relegated to bronze in 49.93.
Five medals
The silver medal brought Jamaica's medal tally for the Games to five - two gold and three silver. The number of medals is now the same as Athens four years ago and there are still four days of competition to go for Jamaica's athletes.
After running her greatest race, Williams heaped praise on her coach, Stephen Francis, of the MVP Track Club.
"I just went out there and did what my coach told me to do and it paid off," she said. "I am really happy right now. My coach always told me that I could run much faster than I was doing."
Williams, a past student of St Elizabeth Technical, came close to gold but she said: "You cannot do better than your personal best. I feel really relieved and happy right now."
Richards went out like a scared hare and led the field until she shortened 30 metres out. Ohuruogu and Williams ran on well and powered past Richards inside the last 20 metres with the former just holding on in the end. Jamaica's other finalist, Rosemarie White, was seventh in 50.68.
Team buoyed
It was veteran 200m runner Chris Williams who revealed that members of the Jamaican team had been considerably buoyed by Bolt's world-beating performances here.
"Overall, Jamaica's athletes are running off each other's energy," Williams said after he failed to get past the semi-finals of the men's 200m.
"Usain started setting the trend in the 100m and everybody began to feed off that energy and I think that's why everybody is trying to do their best to try to advance to the next round each time," he said.
Conserving energy
Bolt will run in today's 200m final after he made defending champion Shawn Crawford of the US look one-paced and very slow in their semi-final. Conserving as much energy as he could, Bolt won semi-final two in 20.09 from Crawford, 20.12, and Wallace Spearmon, 20.14. Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis also reached the final after clocking a season-best 20.25 for third.
Semi-final two saw Churandy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles set a national record 20.11 in passing the post first. Zimbabwe's Brian Dzingai was second in 20.17 and American Walter Dix, third in 20.19. Christian Malcolm, another Briton with Jamaican parents, was fourth in 20.25.
Cautious
Bolt, who will run out of lane five in today's final, was again cautious when asked if he would attempt to break the 200m record of 19.32 held since 1996 by American great Michael Johnson.
"I went out there to qualify for the final and I did just that. I am going out there (Wednesday) to run my heart out and anything that comes comes, but now it will be difficult as I have been through four rounds of 100 and three rounds of 200m. So, right now it's kind of hard to go out there and get a record that is so far away (from his personal best)."
Bolt's best
Bolt's best for the 200m is 19.67.
No Jamaican will run in the final of the men's 400m. The country's last remaining competitor, Ricardo Chambers, was knocked out at the semi-final stage. Chambers was fourth in the second of three semi-finals in 45.09. His time was 15th overall. The fastest qualifiers for the final are Americans LaShawn Merritt, 44.12, and Jeremy Wariner, 44.15. Wariner won heat one while Merritt took heat three.
'I went out there to qualify for the final and I did just that. I am going out there (Wednesday) to run my heart out and anything that comes comes...'
Usain Bolt competes in the men's 200-metre semi-finals yesterday. - AP
