With Shericka Jackson vacating her 100m spot, Sha’Carri Richardson is now well-positioned to win the Olympic title at the Paris 2024 Olympics
Sha’Carri Richardson has recieved a significant boost in the quest for he first Olympic title in Paris, as Shericka Jackson has vacated her 100m spot for another Jamaican sprinter.
Reports first surfaced in Paris indicating that Jackson had been substituted with Sashalee Forbes for the 100m dash. This was later confirmed by Jamaica’s team manager, Ludlow Watts, who told @TvjNewscentre, “(Jackson) has given up her place in the 100 meters…all the information that we can provide is that she is not going to participate in the 100m.”
Jackson’s fitness had been questioned since July 9, when she competed at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary. She pulled up and limped off the track before being seen with a taped knee. Her physiotherapist, Tory Evans, later confirmed via Instagram that it wasn’t a serious injury, just a hamstring cramp.
With this turn of events, track fans were eagerly anticipating a showdown between Jackson and Richardson., who hold the world-leading time of 10.71 seconds. Jackson, Jamaica’s fastest 100m runner of the year with a time of 10.84 seconds at the Olympic trials, was expected to lower her time and seek revenge after failing to Richardson at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
However, Jackson’s withdrawal further solidifies Richardson’s status as the favourite for the Olympic title. Despite this, St Lucia’s Julien Alfred and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica remain strong contenders who could potentially upset Richardson’s path to victory.
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