Having caught the eye with a bronze medal at last summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games, Shericka Jackson has set her sights on winning an individual global gold medal this season.
Jackson, who upset the field to win the women’s 100m crown at Friday night’s JAAA National Senior and Junior Championships in a season’s best 10.77 seconds, confirmed that she will contest the double at next month’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and she expects a gold medal along the way.
“Definitely, that is one of my aims this season,” she said when asked about that elusive gold medal.
“I have so many World (Championships) and Olympic (Games) medals but not a gold medal, so that is one thing that is on my agenda and this year (and) I will be doubling at the World Championships, so definitely want to add a gold medal to my name.”
Jackson revealed that she went to the Rome Diamond League meet because she wanted to work on better executing the run on the bend on the 200m.
“I think I did badly in Doha despite running 22.0, so I fixed it a little (in Rome) and I ran a season-best, so there is something special coming in the 200m (on Sunday),” she promised.
Jackson, who started her career as a 400m/200m runner but contested the shorter sprint with success last season, explained that a lot has changed with her program in recent times, as the team worked to get her more consistent.
“A lot of persons may not know I probably run good in two rounds and then I think I perform low in the finals, so that has been something that we are working on. I just had to refocus real quickly and I think I did that today (Friday) and I ran a massive season-best, I can’t complain.
“Really and truly I’m just happy, I never wanted to go World Indoors because I was so confused about my start and everything, but coach was like, all right then what we are going indoors to do is to work on our start, so I think I did that and I have had a couple of races and the start wasn’t good, but I keep working on the start every day in training and I did pretty good tonight. I know there is a lot of stuff we need to fix but I think 10.77, coach will be happy.”
Shericka Jackson is one of the favorites for Sunday’s 200m final in which she will clash with Olympic Games champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and the red hot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
