J.Shericka Jackson from amaica gave up the 200 m will race on Sunday and will not race for an individual medal at the Paris Summer Olympics. The two-time 200m world champion’s withdrawal comes days after she abandoned the 100m to focus on the 200m.
Favored to win the race, Jackson assured the public after her withdrawal from the 100m – the event for which Jackson won the bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – that she was still in contention. “good shape,” but I was trying to compete “in [her] best” for the 200 m. Jackson had been working through hamstring health issues before the Olympics.
“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” Jackson told Olympics.com on Wednesday, after she withdrew from the 100m, “I just [want] compete at my best, because everyone is here to win.”
It is unclear whether Jackson’s hamstring problem is the reason behind his withdrawal from Sunday’s race.
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Jackson, 30, could still compete in the women’s 4x100m relay on Thursday, as could another Jamaican track and field star, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
TIME reached out to Jackson for comment on her withdrawal from the 200 m race and whether she plans to compete in the relay.
Fraser-Pryce, a two-time Olympic 100m gold medal winner, also withdrew from the individual 100m moments before Saturday’s semi-final race. Sha’Carri Richardson of Team USA, who was the favorite to win the gold, finished the race with a silver medal, and Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia finished with the gold – a historic victory, marking the first medal of your country.
“I’m still trying to think about what happened,” Alfred said after the big race at the Stade de France. “It hasn’t fallen yet.”
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With Jackson out of the 200m race, space opened up for Alfred to potentially win another medal for his country, and for Team USA’s Gabby Thomas, who easily advanced to the 200m final with a time of 22.20.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Team Jamaica won all nine medals in track events: four golds, one silver and four bronzes. With the withdrawals of Fraser-Pryce and Jackson from the individual races – in addition to the gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah’s withdrawal from Paris in June—Team Jamaica, usually dominant on the track, suffered heavy blows.
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