MARRAKECH, Morocco – Two-time world champion Shericka Jackson made her long-awaited 200 metres season debut and won – but barely at the World Athletics Diamond League meet on Sunday.
Jackson, the second-fastest woman of all time, crossed the line at the Grand Stade de Marrakech in 22.82, but instead of pulling away from the field to win by a clear distance, as she often does, the Jamaican appeared to be fighting for victory all the way.
Maboundou Koné of the Ivory Coast was second in 22.96, and Helene Parisot of France third in a personal best time of 23.02.
The win for Jackson was one of two for Jamaican women on the programme with World Championships bronze medallist Rushell Clayton getting the other.
Clayton led a Jamaican 1-2 in the women’s 400m hurdles, winning in 53.98 from compatriot Shiann Salmon, whose 54.27 was a season’s best, and Anna Ryzhykova of Ukraine grabbed third in her season’s best of 55.09.
Jackson, Clayton, and Salmon got the only podium finishes among the English-speaking Caribbean participants at the meet.
Danniel Thomas-Dodd of Jamaica finished fourth with a mark 18.54 metres in the women’s shot putt, where Chase Jackson of the United States broke a 10-year-old meet record with a second-round heave of 20 metres flat, adding 31 centimetres to the mark of New Zealander Valerie Adams from 2014.
The Jamaica pair of Travis Smikle and Fredrik Dacres finished fourth and sixth respectively in the men’s discus, where recent world record-breaker Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania racked up his third consecutive competition beyond 70 metres.
A toss of 66.04 was the best for Smikle, and Dacres reached a mark of 65.05, but it was Alekna that captured the headlines.
He fouled his first attempt before he took the lead in the second round with a mark of 69.94 and then unleashed a 70.70 toss in the fourth round – eight centimetres shy of the meet record – to extend his lead.
Matt Denny of Australia was second with 67.74, and World and Olympic champion Daniel Ståhl of Sweden was third with 67.49m.
Rohan Watson of Jamaica clocked 10.26 and was fifth in the men’s 100 metres, where compatriot and former world champion Yohan Blake ran a season’s best 10.41, but it was only good enough for eighth out of the nine runners.
Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon got the better of Olympic men’s 200 champion Andre de Grasse in the race, winning in 10.11 secs to the Canadian’s 10.19, with Jeremiah Azu of Great Britain taking third in 10.25.
The next Diamond League meet will be the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday in the American city of Eugene in the state of Oregon.
