Shericka Jackson inflicted a first loss of the season on Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the women’s 100m at the Memorial van Damme Brussels Diamond League on Friday.
Lined up in a stock field at the King Baudouin Stadium in the final meet before the season-ending Zurich Diamond League Finals set for September 6 and 7, Jackson finished fastest of all to nip Fraser-Pryce on the line in 10.73 seconds to 10.74 seconds.
It was Fraser-Pryce’s first appearance since pulling out of last week’s Lausanne Diamond League meet due to a hamstring niggle. Incidentally, Jackson, who was warned for “disturbing” the start of that event, was upset by American Aleia Hobbs by a hundredth of a second.
Elaine Thompson-Herah had also false-started in the same event to add more drama to what was expected to be a mouth-watering race.
Then on Tuesday at the 2022 Spitzen Leichtathletik meet in Luzern, Switzerland, Thompson-Herah was beaten into second place by American rising star Sha’Carri Richardson in a pedestrian 11.29 seconds in unfavourable conditions.
Richardson was entered in Friday’s event but was no match for her peers, finishing in fifth place in 10.93 seconds.
Third place went to Marie Josee Ta Lou in 10.78 seconds, with fourth place going to Hobbs in 10.81 seconds.
No other Jamaican was able to make podium places as Candice McLeod (50.76 seconds) could fare no better than fifth place in the women’s 400m, with victory going to the Dominican Republic’s Fiordaliza Cofil in a personal best 49.80 seconds.
Barbadian Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sada Williams was second in 50.15 seconds, with Belgium’s Cynthia Bolingo third in a National Record 50.19 seconds.
Jamaica’s second entrant Stephenie Ann McPherson was eighth and last in 51.73 seconds.
The women’s 100m hurdles event was won in convincing fashion by Puerto Rico’s Olympics champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in Meet Record 12.27 seconds, ahead of American Tia Jones in a personal best 12.38 seconds, with former world record holder Kendra Harrison third in 12.40 seconds.
Jamaica’s Britany Anderson was next in 12.44 seconds with compatriot Megan Tapper fifth in a personal best of 12.51 seconds. Bahamian Devynne Charlton was next with 12.66 seconds.
Meanwhile, American Erriyon Knighton won the men’s 200m in 20.07 seconds ahead of Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic with 20.18 seconds and Canada’s Aaron Brown with 20.22 seconds.
Trinidadian Jereem Richards ran 2.27 seconds for fourth place.
The top athletes on points for each of the Diamond League disciplines will line up in next week’s Zurich Diamond League Finals over two days where the winners walk away with the respecti9ve diamond trophies.
