SELDOM DOES AN athlete’s performance make a rival’s mouth drop open in amazement.
Gabby Thomas’s expression as she simultaneously watched the video screen and congratulated Shericka Jackson encapsulated the moment.
The Jamaican had clocked a jaw-dropping 21.41, the No. 2 all-time performance, as she swiftly but surely gains on Florence Griffith Joyner’s 35-year-old WR of 21.34. Jackson broke her own championships record, the previous No. 2 mark, by 0.04 while defending her world title. She is the fourth woman to win back-to-back 200 crowns (with Dafne Schippers and Allyson Felix the most recent) and the first from her country since Merlene Ottey in ’95.
Jackson added the gold to the silver she won in the 100 and hit double figures in overall Worlds medals with 10 dating back to ’15 when she was a 400 specialist.
Thomas, unable to contend for Team USA last year due to injury, ran 21.81 for 2nd in this highly anticipated sprint. Competing in her first Worlds at age 26, the national champ was determined to hold off 100 winner Sha’Carri Richardson, who posted a PR of 21.92 for the bronze. Richardson became the first American to make the 100 and 200 podiums since Carmelita Jeter in ’11.
Jackson said her coach wouldn’t let her linger on her 100 loss and besides, “The 200 is my baby.”
She revealed that she wrote a fast time on her bib — “21.2 something,” and then beside it wrote 21.40. “And I got close to that,” she said. “As for the World Record — I’m close, I’m close, I’m getting there.”
While Jackson was mostly stonefaced before and immediately after the race, she laughed throughout the press conference. When a journalist asked if she was disappointed that she did not get the WR, she chuckled, “To run that fast, no definitely not.”
Jackson said she waited a long time to celebrate because she wanted to make sure the time was legal — the wind was +0.1 — and she was “super-exhausted. I’m kind of under the weather.”
After drawing lane 6, Jackson said she initially thought, “Ohhh, I wish I was in front of everybody, but then I was like, ‘OK, just focus on your lane… I know I’m strong. I know I’m super-fast.’”
Richardson was in 9, the same lane she had in the 100, as Thomas lined up next to her in 8.
With the temperature a…
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