Jackson to defend 200m title at Hungary meet
MERE days after she finished second in the 100m in Poland, world champion Shericka Jackson is to contest the women’s 200m at Tuesday’s Istvan Gyulai Memorial, a World Athletic Continental Tour gold event, at Bregyó Athletic Centerin Szekesfehervar in Hungary.
Jackson, who won the race last year after she claimed gold in the 200m at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, will be joined by Briana Williams in the half-lap race, as 21 Jamaicans are scheduled to compete in the event.
Jamaican national champions Rohan Watson, Andrew Hudson, Janieve Russell and Adelle Tracey are also expected to compete at the event, almost a month before the World Championships to be held in Budapest.
Jackson, the world leader, was beaten in the 100m by American Sha’Carri Richardson at the Diamond League meeting in Poland on Sunday. Today she will be running her fourth 200m this season.
Her season’s best 21.71 seconds in the final of the Jamaica athletics championships was the world lead for a few hours until American Gabbi Thomas ran 21.60 seconds to win at the United States championships
Jackson is expected to be challenged by the American pair of Kayla White and Tamara Clarke, as well as Anthonique Strachan of The Bahamas.
Watson, who won his first international race last weekend in Italy, will hope to remain unbeaten when he faces a field that includes compatriots Ackeem Blake, Ryiem Forde and Yohan Blake. Americans Marvin Bracy-Williams and Ronnie Baker and Liberia’s Emmanuel Matadi are also set to compete.
Natasha Morrison, who was second at the Jamaican national championships, will square off against Richardson in the 100m while St Lucia’s NCAA and Central American and Caribbean Games champion Julien Alfred and Tamari Davis of the USA will add to the depth in the race.
Hudson, the NACAC Open champion, takes on the impressive American teenager Erriyon Knighton in the men’s 200m. Hudson is to be joined by Julian Forte and Michael Campbell who are still trying to get the World Championships qualifying mark of 20.16 seconds.
Olympic champion Hansle Parchment, Tyler Mason and Damion Thomas are to fly the Jamaican flag in the 110m hurdles during which they will go up against Americans Daniel Roberts and Freddie Crittenden.
Janieve Russell, Andrenette Knight, Rushell Clayton and Shiann Salmon, who finished in that order in the women’s 400m hurdles at the national championships, will clash once again with more than bragging rights at stake.
Panama’s Gianna Woodruff is expected to compete for a place on the podium as well.
Charokee Young will take on Barbados’s World Championships medallist Sada Williams and Americans Lynna Irby-Jackson and McKenzie Dunmore in the women’s 400m.
Former World Champion Tajay Gayle will be part of a quality men’s long jump field that will include Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou and Americans Marquis Dendy and William Williams. Chanice Porter is to compete in the women’s long jump and Tracey in the women’s 1500m.
Meanwhile, Javon Francis was sixth in the men’s 400m at the Meeting de Marseille in France, running 46.32 seconds.
The two-time World Championships relay medallist had failed to make it to the final of the event at the Jamaican national championships, placing ninth overall in the semi-finals.