GOOD SIGNS FROM JAMAICA’S WOMEN SPRINTERS

In 2008 Jamaica had four of the fastest women in the world. There were so fast that Veronica Campbell Brown, the then queen of the sprints ran a blistering 10.88 seconds at the National Championships at the National Stadium but couldn’t make the top three. She finished fourth.

In Beijing that year Jamaica’s women were hot favourites to win the sprint relay, especially after the historic 1-2-2 finish in the 100-metre finals. They were well on their way to a certain win and a possible world record when a botched exchange between Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart ended the dream of total domination of the short sprints in Beijing. Shelly Ann Frazer Pryce left Beijing with her gold in the 100m, VCB with her gold in the 200m, Stewart with her silver and bronze in the 100m and 200m and Simpson with her silver from the 100m.

Since those days of triumph, all four women have had their moments of strife but it could be argued Simpson and Stewart, the joint silver medalists from Beijing suffered the most. After chasing Frazer-Pryce to the line in Berlin a year later setting a personal best of 10.75s Stewart opened her 2010 campaign most likely relishing the opportunity to go even faster but while running in Sotteville in June, the former St. Jago athlete suffered a devastating hamstring tear. It has been a long road back for the soft-spoken Auburn graduate who was named the 2007 SEC Runner of the Year and USTFCCCA National Runner of the Year after capturing the SEC and NCAA Championships in the 60m and the 200m.

Those accomplishments plus her relay gold medal in Berlin and individual medals must have seemed so far removed as she struggled to getting back to being one of the best female sprinters in history, certainly one of the fastest.

Simpson’s story is well documented. Since her heyday in 2006, an eternity ago when she was number one in the world in both 100m (10.82) and 200 metres (22.00) Simpson has had to overcome two knee surgeries and a series of injuries that had reduced her to a shadow of her former self. She even admits having considered retirement so great was the frustration she felt trying to regain the form that made her a darling in the world of track and field.

With that in mind both women must have felt a sense of relief and cautious expectation for the remainder of 2013 and more specifically, the IAAF World Championships set for Russia this summer after great performances against their American rivals at the 119th Penn Relays over the weekend. In a field stacked with sprint talent and up against a US team that had Jeneba Tarmoh, Alyson Felix and Bianca Knight, Jamaica’s woman shone. Simpson exploded from the blocks and ran as well as I have ever seen her, opening up the stagger on the field and handing over first to the woman with whom she botched that baton change almost five years ago.

Stewart had Alyson Felix on her leg. Felix who ran a personal best 10.89s in the 100m in London last season as well as winning her first Olympic title in the 200m and a blistering 21.69 during the season. But none of those amazing stats meant anything to Stewart as she strode majestically down the back stretch holding the fast-striding American at bay and maintaining the lead that Simpson had given her. Together, these two women who have battled more against injury than anything or anyone over the last few years, gave Anneisha McClaughlin and Frazer-Pryce, two-time Olympic champion all the advantage they needed to end the USA women’s eight-year dominance in this event. Carmelita Jeter hobbled by a hamstring injury she suffered recently at the Mt SAC Relays was unable to hide her frustration at the loss, but she was not in a position to do anything about it. Even if she had been able to run I doubt she would have been able to do anything about it.

Frazer-Pryce may have crowned herself in glory at the end of the race but I suspect that she would acknowledge that the race was won from the first two legs by two women who would have found triumph over adversity and injury. The time of 42.24 is miles off the world record of 40.85s set by the USA in London last year but the season is still young, and based on what we saw from Stewart and Simpson better days may be ahead.

They have been a long time in coming but with a little luck very soon, with a little more work, and a bit more prayer, Jamaica could field its strongest unit since 2008, one that will once again set the world alight and perhaps take back the record that could have been theirs on that night in Beijing almost five years ago.