Jackson, Bol, and others fired up for Friday's Diamond League in Brussels
The cream of the world athletes has extra motivation to post world performances at the Brussels Diamond League on Friday.
Meeting director Kim Gevaert announced this week that she was “super-happy” with the work that has been done on a track whose forgiving curvature has always encouraged fast times for 200m and 400m runners in particular.
“The track at the King Baudouin Stadium has always been a good track, but it was really worn down to the bone,” Gevaert said. “It was high time for a new one. It was fine for sprinters, but the old track had become too hard for distance runners.”
What that will mean for talents who still have time on their minds in the penultimate Diamond League meeting of the season remains to be seen – and savoured.
A world record is very much on the mind of Shericka Jackson, who retained her world 200m title last month.
After taking gold in 21.41, the second fastest time ever run and just 0.07 off the world record set by the late Florence Griffith-Joyner of the United States at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the powerful Jamaican looked just a little cast down when she saw her time.
She revealed why afterward
: “Honestly, when I crossed the line and saw the time, I said aaahhh, I’m close, I’m close. I wrote down two times on my bib today. The slowest I wrote was 21.40 and I got 21.41. I just wanted to see the race before I celebrated because I didn’t know if it was wind-legal.”
Jackson refused to say if the second target was a world record – but one can only assume so. So eyes firmly peeled for this race…
It’s worth noting that the second fastest 200m of all time by a man was run in this same stadium in 2011 when Yohan Blake of Jamaica clocked 19.26.
Of Jackson’s rivals, only USA’s Jenna Prandini has run under 22 seconds (21.89). But the field contains strong competitors such as Anthonique Strachan of The Bahamas, who has a best of 22.15, and Britain’s Darryl Neita, who lowered her personal best to 22.16 in Budapest.
Puerto Rico’s Olympic 100m hurdles champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who has a best of 22.27, is also in the field. But the great likelihood is that the main contest will be between Jackson and the clock.
World 400m hurdles champion Bol, unbeaten this year in her frequent races over her signature event, will seek to trouble the personal best of 51.45 she set in London in July. What has she got left for 2023?
