Overview

Two World Champions. Two Olympic champions. 9 national record holders and 17 2021 Olympic finalists. That’s what Jamaica has brought to Eugene, Oregon to contest the 2022 World Athletics Championships which begin on July 15.

The reigning champions are Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who goes in search of a record 5th 100m title, and long jumper Tajay Gayle, who is racing against time to be fully fit. The strong Jamaica line-up also features Elaine Thompson-Herah, the double-double Olympic champion in the 100m and 200m, and Hansle Parchment who triumphed last year in Tokyo in the 110m hurdles.

Fraser-Pryce is already the most successful 100m athlete in World Championships history, male or female, with wins in 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2019.

Jamaica’s 64-member team includes in-form sprinter Shericka Jackson and her fellow 2019 medal winners Fedrick Dacres, Danniel Thomas-Dodd, Shanieka Ricketts and Danielle Williams. While Dacres, Thomas-Dodd and Ricketts will seek repeat podium spots in the discus, shot and triple jump, Williams will be joined by Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper and national champion Britany Anderson in a brilliant 100m hurdles trio.

In addition, the Jamaica squad includes all the members of the victorious 2022 World Indoor Championships 4x400m quartet, Junelle Bromfield, 400m hurdles ace Janieve Russell, Roneisha McGregor and Stephennie Ann McPherson, repeat World Indoor triple jump medallist Kimberly Williams and McPherson’s fellow Olympic 400 finalist Candice McLeod.

First Final…

Day one of the meet will see Jamaica go in search of its 128th World Championship medal as the mixed 4x400m relay will come to a climax on July 15. Buoyed by a gold medal performance in the women’s 4x400m relay at the World Indoor Championships, this will be a prime opportunity.

Starting in 1983 with a gold medal for Bertland Cameron in the 400m, silver for Merlene Ottey in the 200 and a bronze in the 4×100, Jamaica has 35 gold, 49 silver and 43 bronze medals. 40 more gold medals aren’t out of the question as Jamaica’s formidable female sprinters should prevail in the 100, 200 and 4×100, where they are Olympic and World champions, and with Parchment heading to Eugene undefeated in five starts this season.

Some pundits expect world records in the women’s 100, 200 and the 4×100, in which Jamaica won the Olympic gold last year in 41.02 seconds. Only the USA has run faster at 41.01 in the 2016 Olympics and 40.82 seconds in the 2012 Olympic final.

Jamaica took home 3 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze medals from the last World Championships (2019) and 4 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze medals from last year’s Olympics (2021). 10 more medals in Eugene would bring Jamaica’s all-time World Championships medal collection to 137.