‘Oslo was a bit hurtful’

FOLLOWING DEFEAT last week in Oslo, Shericka Jackson, the double sprint Diamond League champion, returned to winning ways at yesterday’s Stockholm meeting.

Competing in the women’s 200 metres, Jackson looked much better out of the blocks than in her previous two outings and controlled the race early to win easily in a season’s best 22.69 seconds.

It was also a season’s best for Sweden’s Julia Henriksson, second in 22.89. Amy Hunt of Great Britain was third in 22.92.

Jackson was happy to bounce back with a win following her fifth-place finish in Oslo.

“Sometimes you have to have a mishap to sort out where you are, and Oslo was a bit hurtful, but it was also a lesson for me, and today (yesterday), I ran a season’s best,” said Jackson.

Jackson is now looking forward to Jamaica’s national championships.

“I am a couple of weeks away from the Jamaica National Championships, and I have been in Europe for a while, so it is good to be able to bounce back from the Oslo disappointment,” said Jackson.

Rushell Clayton has finally lost a race.

In what was her most stern test to date, in the women’s 400-metre hurdles, Clayton had to settle for finishing behind Dutchwoman Femke Bol, who, in her season debut, clocked a nippy 53.07 seconds.

Clayton, clocking a decent 53.78, ran well throughout, but the class of Bol prevailed in the latter part of the race.

Another Jamaican, in Andrenette Knight, closed out the top three with a season’s best 54.62. Janieve Russell, who ended fourth in 54.99, was also running a season’s best.

Triple jumper Shanieka Ricketts went one place up the podium from her third-place finish in Eugene with a best hop-skip-and-jump of 14.40 metres.

Leyanis Hernandez Perez of Cuba won the event with 14.60, and Theo Lafond of Dominica was third with 14.26. Kimberly Williams had to settle for ninth with 13.48.

Ryiem Forde clocked 10.22 seconds for fourth in the men’s 100 metres. Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon maintained his consistency to win in 10.16, finishing just ahead of the United States’ Kyree King, 10.18, and Italy’s Chiituru Ali, 10.19.

Danniel Thomas-Dodd was fifth in the women’s shot put with a hurl of 18.77 metres, while Fedrick Dacres’s 64.21in the men’s discus was good enough for sixth. Natasha Morrison was seventh in the women’s 100 metres in 11.41 seconds.