When Merlene Ottey set the last of her 7 national outdoor 200m records 16 years ago, it was clear that even that performance – 21.64 seconds – could have been improved. Then 31, Ottey battled a headwind gusting at 1 metre per second in the Belgian city of Brussels. The world record – 21.34 by Florence Griffith Joyner – was far away in those days. But, in 2021 and 2022, it has been brought into reach by Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson.

Thompson-Herah lowered Ottey’s standard to 21.53 seconds as she replayed her golden sprint double from 2016. This July, at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Jackson went even closer, with a super time of 21.45 seconds to secure her first global gold medal. Speaking six weeks later in Zurich, Switzerland, Jackson revealed that 21.45 was her target for 2022.

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

Asked if her new goal would break the world record, she replied that it was ‘definitely roundabout there’.

Her calm confidence is understandable. At the National Championships, she zoomed home in 21.55 seconds. Beyond that, her runner-up finish in the Eugene 100m and her World and Olympic medals in the 400m suggest quick times in the 200m. In Eugene, she won by almost 0.4 in the 200m as she moved closer to the Griffith-Joyner record.

Needless to say, the 21.45 is the second fastest time ever run.

Even so, an all-around advance is required. Griffith Joyner was faster in the 100m, with her three best times being 10.49, 10.61 and 10.62 seconds respectively. Her 400m best 50.89 pales beside Jackson’s 49.47 but the American seldom ran the one-lap event. In fact, she revealed her true ability over the distance with a 48.1-second anchor for the USA in the 1988 Olympic 4×400 final.

Shericka’s best relay split time is 49.4.

In the meantime, a return to top form for Thompson-Herah might give the double-double Olympic champion a chance to snatch the record herself. Like Shericka in Zurich, the 30-year-old Thompson-Herah had looked optimistically at Griffith Joyner’s longstanding mark after her triumph in Tokyo, the host city of last year’s Olympic Games.

“To be honest, I would say the 200 because I ran 21.53 not getting enough recovery from running rounds the previous day, so I would say the 200 more than the 100”, she stated in response to questions about world records in both sprint events.

Her reasoning didn’t sound farfetched.

The sprint schedule will suit her perfectly. World Athletics has restored the rest day between the 100m final and the 200m heats for next year’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. In addition, the 200m heats, semis and finals are set for separate days.

As she matures in the MVP Track Club speed development programme that launched Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce and Thompson-Herah to stardom, the record might one day be hers.