AthleticsJA.ORG - Kaliese Spencer’s Belated Bronze Builds 400m Hurdles Legacy

Jamaica’s legacy in the women’s 400m hurdles received a belated boost last week with Kaliese Spencer being promoted to third in the 2012 Olympics. The upgrade follows a retroactive doping disqualification for Natalya Antyukh of Russia, who crossed the line first in 2012.

Jamaica’s legacy in the event once known as ‘the man killer‘ goes back to the first time the women’s 400m hurdles event was contested in the Games. That was at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles when US-based Jamaican Sandra Farmer reached the final. Three years later Farmer, who later represented the USA as Sandra Farmer-Patrick, wasn’t far from a medal for Jamaica in the 1987 World Championships.

Since then, Deon Hemmings, gold in 1996 and silver in 2000, Melaine Walker, the winner in 2008 and now Spencer have given a world-class presence in the one-lap hurdles. With Debbie-Ann Parris fourth in 1996, Hemmings set Olympic records of 52.99 and 52.82 seconds in the semi and the final respectively. It was a landmark as no Jamaican woman had won an Olympic gold medal before then.

Walker has a special distinction of her own. Hemmings captured silver and bronze medals at the World Championships, with her first big podium coming in 1995 with a third-place finish. Walker took the lead by moving from her Olympic gold to a super run at the 2009 World Championships in 52.42 seconds, a Jamaican record and at the time just 0.03 off the world record.

Two years later, Walker added a silver.

She is still among the 10 fastest women of all time. She appears at number 6, with Spencer settling at number 13 with her lifetime best of 52.79 and Hemmings at 15.

With role models like Hemmings and Walker, it’s little wonder that others have now taken up the mantle. Spencer, who was the World Under 20 champion in 2006, started a Commonwealth Games winning sequence with gold for Jamaica in 2014. It feels logical that Janieve Russell has ‘defended’ the title in 2018 and 2022.

Walker, Spencer and Russell, a 2016 and 2021 Olympic finalist, all scaled the heights as members of the MVP Track Club.

A medal pause ensued after Walker’s 2011 silver. However, it ended when Ristananna Tracey and Rushell Clayton took back-to-back bronzes in 2017 and 2019 respectively. Tracey and Clayton even produced the same personal best time — 53.74 seconds — to secure their landmark medals.

The future is bright too. Russell and Clayton are still among the world’s best, and Shian Salmon, the 2018 World Under 20 runner-up, captured the silver behind Russell at the Commonwealth Games this year before winning the NACAC Open in the Bahamas. To top things off, there were 4 Jamaicans in the world’s top ten – Clayton, Andrewnette Knight, Russell and Salmon with times of 53.33, 53.39, 53.52 and 53.82 respectively.

Now known as Kaliese Carter, the 2002 Boys and Girls Championships class 2 800m winner has now bumped the Jamaica total of Olympic medals to 88, 26 gold, 36 silver and 26 bronze. All but cyclist David Weller’s 1980 bronze were won in athletics.