VIDEO: Shericka Jackson targets Flo-Jo 200m world record in Zurich Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

Jamaican Shericka Jackson says she is targeting the 34-year-old 200m world record on Thursday when the Wanda Diamond League season reaches its climax in Zurich, Switzerland.

American great Florence Griffith-Joyner also known at Flo-Jo clocked 21.34 seconds to set the record when winning the Olympic gold medal at Seoul in 1988.

Jackson ran the second fastest time in history – 21.45 seconds – to win gold at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon on July 21.

“I’m very great at the 200m,” said Jackson with a smile. “I am definitely looking for a fast, fast time.”

“At the World Championships I had a lot in my legs and was still able to run 21.4 seconds so to come out here, I expect to perform at my best.”

Jackson will also compete in the 100m final which is 80 minutes before she runs in attempts to break the 200m world record.

The Jamaican played down fears that the time between the races may hamper her.

“That recovery is enough for me. I want to challenge myself, and I think here is the best place to do it,” she added.

Jackson revealed that she set her World Championships-winning time as a goal earlier in the season and has since revised it downwards.

“Before this season I wrote that exact time on a piece of paper,” she said.

“I left it on my trophy stand so every time I step in my house or go to training I know I have that target…. I wanted it so badly.

“I went back home [after the Worlds], and I wrote another time because I definitely want to go faster, and I think I am capable of doing that.

“If it is not done tomorrow then definitely I come back next year and work even harder.”

Asked if her new goal would break Joyner-Griffiths’ world record, she replied that it was “definitely round about there”.

Apart from targeting Joyner-Griffiths’ world record, Jackson will be aiming to win the sprint double.

Since the Diamond League Final became a one-meeting affair last year, no athlete has yet managed to win more than one trophy in any given season. But Jackson could become the first to achieve that feat.

Of course, before turning her attention to her specialist event, the 200m, she would have to win the 100m – which is no mean feat but also not impossible, given she won in Brussels last weekend.

In Brussels, Jackson defeated her fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the five-time world champion, by 0.01 seconds. It was the first defeat for Fraser-Pryce over 100m this season following a streak of sub-10.70 runs.

It was far from a disaster for Fraser-Pryce, though, who still clocked a remarkable 10.74. And that race could be just the motivation she needs to secure another Diamond Trophy in Zurich.

Jackson will no doubt be her toughest rival once again, while the competitive line-up also includes African record-holder Marie-Josee Ta Lou, Jamaica’s Natasha Morrison, US trio Aleia Hobbs, Sha’Carri Richardson and Twanisha Terry, and Britain’s Daryll Neita.

The 35-year-old Fraser-Pryce believes she can end her season by improving on the 10.60-second personal best she set in Lausanne in 2021.

Only two women have ever run faster. Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah clocked 10.54 in the wake of her win in Tokyo, while Griffith-Joyner’s 10.49 world record has remained out of reach since July 1988.

Fraser-Pryce has hit new levels of consistency this year. She has run six of the 18 fastest times in history this season.

“What drives me is that I am at this point of my career, is that I have dreamt of running 10.6 seconds and now being able to do that consistently, I want to challenge myself every time I step to the line,” she said.

“I am definitely chasing a personal best.”

Fraser-Pryce also revealed that she is only taking part in Zurich after her five-year son Zyon’s return to school was delayed.

“It was going to be his first day and Zurich was not going to happen,” she added.

“I was ready to go home and it was like divine intervention in that I got an email from his school saying they were postponing, so that is why I am here.”

But whatever happens in the shorter sprint, Jackson will start as the overwhelming favourite for the 200m.

Olympic bronze medallist Gabby Thomas is the only woman to have beaten Jackson over 200m this year, but that was back in May in Doha when the Jamaican wasn’t near her peak and before Thomas picked up a niggling injury. The US sprinter has recovered enough to compete in Zurich, and will be joined on the start line by European champion Mujinga Kambundji and world finalist Tamara Clark.

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