By Helen Reid
PARIS (Reuters) -Jamaica’s dominance in the women’s 100 and 200 metres came to an abrupt end in Paris with sprint queens Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson absent or injured.
Jamaica took 10 of the 12 women’s 100 medals available in the four Olympics before Paris, including a clean sweep in Tokyo, and won four of the previous five 200s as they came out on top in their continuing duel with the United States.
Jamaica’s “big three”, who have 19 Olympic medals between them, filled the podium three years ago, but Thompson-Herah missed the Paris Games through injury and the campaigns of Fraser-Pryce and Jackson were cut short by injury and neither made the start line of either individual final or the relay.
The 100 final had only one Jamaican, Tia Clayton, in a race won by St Lucia’s Julien Alfred, with Americans taking the silver and bronze, making it the first time since 1988 that no Jamaicans were on the podium.
Jamaica did not even manage a finalist in the 200 – the first time since 1976 that they did not medal. In total Jamaica walked away from Paris with six medals, down from nine in Tokyo and 11 in Rio.
“It’s somewhat disappointing in terms of the number of medals,” said Maurice Wilson, technical director at Jamaica’s track and field team.
“The world has caught up with us,” he added, pointing to the United States’ successes on the track.
“We dominated them for about nine years, non-stop, and they started to do their homework … and since then they have continued to move forward,” Wilson said.
“We need to go back to the drawing board.”
Double sprint champion Thompson-Herah missed the Jamaican trials in June due to an Achilles injury, while Jackson initially dropped out of the 100 before the Games, and then later pulled out of the 200 days before she was due to run.
“My 2024 Olympic dream has been shattered,” Jackson posted on Instagram on Friday. “I was hopeful that I would earn three more Olympic medals for Jamaica. However, injury has intervened.”
Fraser-Pryce did compete in the 100 qualifiers but dropped out moments before the semi-finals, due to an injury in the warm-up after security officials delayed her getting into the stadium.
“It is difficult for me to find the words to describe the depth of my disappointment,” Fraser-Pryce, who was competing at her fifth Olympics, said in a statement.
Neither of them took part in the sprint relay, where Jamaica finished fifth, having won it in Tokyo and taken silver in the previous two Games. They then dropped the baton in the 4×400 final having medalled in the previous six.
On the men’s side Kishane Thompson missed 100 gold by a whisker, finishing five thousandths of a second behind American Noah Lyles and Rasheed Broadbell won bronze in the 110 hurdles, but Jamaica did not even qualify for the 4×100 relay final.
It was not all doom and gloom, however, as the country enjoyed a productive Games in the field events, bringing home their first medals in the men’s discus and shot put.
“The track gets a lot of attention but the field events have been on the rise and we should get more support,” Paris Olympics discus champion Roje Stona said.
(Reporting by Helen Reid, Additional reporting by Kayon Raynor; Editing by Ken Ferris, Peter Rutherford)
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