Olympic birthday celebrations for four Jamaican athletes
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Four of Jamaica’s female athletes will celebrate birthdays on the world stage in London during this year’s staging of the Olympic Games.
Nickiesha Wilson, Sherone Simpson, Schillonie Calvert and Rosemarie Whyte will see their milestones and hopefully gain Olympic medals as birthday gifts.
Wilson competes in the 100m and 400m hurdles with a personal best of 12.79 seconds at the 100m, which she achieved in Szczecin, Poland in 2009. She was born in 1986 and her birthday will be on July 28, one day after the official opening of the 30th Olympiad.
Simpson, who was born in Manchester on August 12, 1984, holds a gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics where she ran on the 4x100m relay team; she also has a silver medal in the 100m in the 2008 Olympics when she tied with fellow Jamaican Keron Stewart for second place in a dramatic photo finish. Simpson has a 200m personal best of 22.00 seconds.
Calvert, born July 27, 1988 in St James competes in both the 100m and 200m. She ran creditable times of 22.68 in the 200m in Madrid earlier this year and 11.66 in the 100m in New York.
Rosemarie Whyte the national 400m champion was born August 9, 1986 in Trelawny. She represented Jamaica at the 2008 Olympics in Bejing, where she earned a bronze medal in the 4X400m relay.