JAMAICA’S two-time World Athletics Championships 200m gold medallist Shericka Jackson says her loss in the women’s 200m in Oslo, Norway, last week might have been the wake-up call she needed as she prepares for this summer’s Olympic Games.

After rebounding with a season’s best 22.69 seconds (-2.0m/s) to win at the BAUHAUS-Galan Diamond League meet at Olympic stadium in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sunday she said previously she might have been “going through the motions”.

On Thursday Jackson lost a 200m race for the first time in two years in a major competition, finishing fifth at the Bislett Games on Thursday — a defeat she described as “a blessing” for her .

Four days later, unlike in Oslo, Jackson stormed out of the starting blocks and led off the curve to cruise home ahead of Sweden’s Julia Hendriksson, who ran a personal best 22.89 for second, and Great Britain’s Amy Hunt who was third in 22.92.

“Sometimes you have to have a mishap to sort out where you are. Oslo was a bit hurtful but it was also a lesson for me, and today I ran a season’s best and that was good,” Jackson said during post-race interviews.

“I have always had confidence, as I feel in good shape, but this is good for me now. I am a couple of weeks away from the Jamaican championships and I have been in Europe for a while so it is good to be able to bounce back from the Oslo disappointment before I go home,” she said.

“I was not ever going to beat myself up as I know I am training well and things will come together — and this has shown today.”

Jackson had a good 2023 season during which she defended her 200m title at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, lowering her personal bests in the 100m and 200m. She also won the Diamond Trophy in both events.

“You would think it would be easy to be motivated but, for me, I think I lost who I was as a person and I was going to training and just going through the motions.

“I think, therefore, Oslo was a blessing for me. It gave me that realisation that I do still want to be winning. Sometimes I struggle a bit mentally and at Oslo I lost a bit of who I am but now I am back, and this was important for me,” she explained.

There were second-place finishes for 400m hurdler Rushell Clayton and triple jumper Shanieka Ricketts as the Jamaicans turned their collective attention to the Jamaican national championships set for June 27-30. The national championships will be used to select the country’s track and field team to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.

Clayton lost for the first time this season in the women’s 400m hurdles and has slipped from first to third in the global rankings as world champion Femke Bol won with 53.07 seconds in her first race of the season. Bol is currently second best in the world behind American world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone who ran 52.07 seconds to win at the Ed Moses Classic in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday.

Clayton’s 53.78 was her second fastest of the season, while fellow World Championships finalists Andrenette Knight, who got off to a fast start, was third in 54.62, and Janieve Russell placed fourth in 54.99. Both Knight and Russell lowered their season-best times in back-to-back races.

“The aim is always to execute and to win the moment I step on the line, so it doesn’t matter if it’s Femke or any other competitor,” Clayton said, explaining that she stutter-stepped at some of the barriers.

“The mental part is 80 per cent, the physical is just that other 20 per cent. Today I never felt mentally strong at all but it’s a job and I love what I do, therefore I will always give it my best shot. The goal now is to get on that Olympic team. It will be tough but I like when it’s hard,” she said.

Ricketts, who jumped 14.40m (-1.0m/s) to improve her placing from the PreFontaine Classic in Eugene, was second to Cuba’s Leyanis Perez Hernandez-14.67m (1.4m/s).

Former Commonwealth Games champion Kimberly Williams was ninth with 13.48m (-0.7m/s).

Ricketts passed up her final three jumps.

“It was a little bit breezy out there this afternoon so I decided to forego my second three jumps as I did not want to risk anything,” she explained afterward.

“I need to go back to training now and work on a few things from today that did not go quite to plan. I was confident going into today but there were a few technical bits for me to sort out. I felt a bit rusty today but I am sure it will come together in time for Paris,” she said.