Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, the reigning world champion in the 200m, set the fastest wind-legal time in the women’s 100m so far this year, clocking 10.82 (-0.1m/s) at Velocity Fest 13, a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger event, at the National Stadium in Kingston on Saturday night.
Jackson easily qualified for the final earlier in the day with a time of 11.05 in her preliminary round heat, and then outperformed the competition to beat the previous world-leading time of 10.86 (1.9m/s) set by USA’s world sixth-place finisher Aleia Hobbs at the LSU Alumni Gold meet hours earlier in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Jackson’s time also set a new meet record.
In the final, her MVP teammates Natasha Morrison (11.09) and Anthonique Strachan (11.11) of the Bahamas finished second and third, respectively.
Briana Williams, who qualified for the final with a time of 11.34 after finishing second in the third heat, did not show up for the final.
Jamaica’s back-to-back Olympic champion in the 100m and 200m, Elaine Thompson-Herah, was initially scheduled to compete in heat two of the preliminary round but withdrew.
Ackeem Blake competes at Velocity Fest 13. (PHOTO: Marlon Reid).
In the men’s 100m final where no wind information was available, Ackeem Blake crossed the line first but was later disqualified.
According to the official revised results, Blake was disqualified after conpleting the race based on World Athletics Competition rule TR16.8, which pertains to false starts. The rule reads that “any athlete responsible for a false start shall be disqualified by the starter.”
Blake, who had entered the final with the fastest qualifying time of 9.99 seconds, appeared to have false started in the final, although the starter did not call back the race.
As a result, Blake’s Racers Track Club teammate Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain was awarded the victory with a hand-timed 9.9 seconds. Kadrian Goldson and Julian Forte finished in a dead heat for second place, both with hand-timed 10.0 seconds.
Earlier, 18-year-old Kerrica Hill – the 2022 World Under-20 100m hurdles champion – set a meet record and new personal best 12.75 seconds to win the women’s 100m hurdles. Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper secured second place with a time of 12.99, while St Catherine High schoolgirl Asharria Ulett finished third with a time of 13.99.
Hill’s time improves on her previous personal best of 12.77 – a world Under-18 best over the senior height barriers that she set at the World Under-20 Championships in Cali last year – and moves her to equal third on the world Under-20 all-time list.
In the men’s 110m hurdles, Tyler Mason claimed victory with a new personal best time of 13.32 seconds. Orlando Bennett finished in second place with a time of 13.47, while Odario Phillip set a personal best of 13.60 to secure third place.
World Championships bronze medallist Sada Williams of Barbados clocked 51.84 to win the women’s 400m from her MVP teammate 400m hurdles specialist Janieve Russell (52.41) and SprinTec’s Tovea Jenkins (52.66).
Jamaica’s 2019 world silver medallist Fedrick Dacres won the men’s discus with a 65.66m throw. Traves Smikle (64.30m) and Chad Wright (63.35m) finished second and third, respectively.
