ROME, Italy (AFP) — Shericka Jackson won the women’s 200m at the Diamond League meeting in Rome on Thursday, seeing off a star-studded field to claim an impressive victory.
Jamaican Jackson clocked 21.91sec to cross well clear of double Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah and reigning world champion Dina Asher-Smith.
The 27-year-old won bronze in the 100m in last year’s Tokyo Olympics and was part of the 4x100m relay team, alongside Thompson-Herah, which won gold in the Japanese capital.
Jackson ended her compatriot’s unbeaten record this season with a meeting record and season’s best time as the world championships in Eugene, Oregon, loom.
Her performance was all the more impressive due to Thompson-Herah and Briton Asher-Smith both running respective seasons’ best times of 22.25sec and 22.27sec.
“This race was a good one. I ran a season´s best, I cannot complain,” said Thompson-Herah.
“I still have to work on some stuff. Now I concentrate on my nationals and I am looking forward to the world championships.”
Another Tokyo gold medal winner in Athing Mu showed what she was made of by strolling to victory in her favoured 800m on her first appearance in a European Diamond League meeting.
American Mu, one of the stars of last year’s Olympics who turned 20 on Wednesday, finished in 1:57.01, the fastest time in the world this year.
Mu was racing the distance for the first time in a serious outdoor event this season and blitzed the opposition, finishing nearly two seconds ahead of France’s Renelle Lamont.
“I knew the pace was going to go out, but by the time we got to the next two hundred, I had no idea. I am very happy with the time,” said Mu.
Femke Bol took the honours in the women’s 400m hurdles with a season’s best time of 53.02sec.
Dutch hope Bol, silver medallist at this year’s indoor worlds over the 400m flat, finished ahead of Jamaican Janieve Russell and Ukraine’s Anna Ryzhykova.
Later the men’s 100m will be run without injured home hero Lamont Marcell Jacobs, the shock Olympic gold medal winner pulling out of the event and a chance to take on American Fred Kerley in an outdoor event.
Jacobs said that he was hoping to compete in “one or two” events before the July 15-24 world championships in Eugene after suffering a problem with his glute muscles during a meeting in Savona last month.
He told reporters that he would like to take part in an event with “a semi-final and a final in order to be able to put two races close together”.
“But if that’s not possible, we’ll go to Eugene hoping to do the best we can,” he added.
That Savona meeting was his first 100m race since stunning the world by taking gold in Tokyo.