VCB hints she could retire in 2017
BEIJING, China — The year 2017 will be celebrated as the Chinese year of the Rooster, but it is also the Jamaican year of retirement, it seems, as Veronica Campbell-Brown joins the legendary Usain Bolt in tentatively setting that year to retire from track and field.
Campbell-Brown, at 33-years-old, is one of Jamaica’s most decorated athletes with 11 World Championships medals inclusive of three gold, seven silver and a bronze — earned recently in the 200m here in Beijing.
Campbell-Brown, who was also an integral part of Jamaica’s 4x100m victorious relay team, revealed that she plans to hang up the spikes in two year’s time when asked about her plans to retire.
“There was no thought leading up to this because my mindset is going up to 2017 then my husband and I will see if we want to move on and it will depend on how I am running,” said Campbell-Brown, after snatching bronze in the 200m with a seasonal best of 21.97 seconds.
“I know that I am capable of running faster than I have so far this season and when my body starts telling me that I cannot compete with the rest of the world, then it’s time to go,” she added.
Campbell-Brown made her senior debut for Jamaica at the Sydney Olympic in 2000 and won a silver medal running the backstretch on a team involving the great Merlene Ottey.
Fifteen years on, Campbell-Brown is still going strong, but said she will call it a day when her body sends the signal.
“I am not going to hang around and keep running, cannot make a final, cannot even have a chance of medalling. I don’t want to get to that point,” she reiterated.
“I want to leave feeling good about myself. I don’t want to leave on a lull,” she added.
Campbell-Brown, who is the female team captain, ran one of the best curves of her career and won bronze in the fastest 200m ever run at the World Championships since the inception in 2003.
The winner was Dutchwoman Dafne Schippers in an amazing 21.63 seconds with Jamaica’s rising star, Elaine Thompson second in 21.66 and just missed the Jamaican national record of 21.64. Campbell did 21.97, but has a lifetime best of 21.74.
Campbell-Brown, draped in the national flag, went over to the exhausted Thompson who was competing for Jamaica for the very first time and hugged her.
“I was congratulating her. I am very proud of her. It’s good for Jamaica to have youngsters coming through because we have to keep going,” said Campbell-Brown.
“We have a history of having great sprinters and we have to keep it going. I am happy for her,” she added.
Though not departing the scene as yet, Campbell-Brown had some advice for the up and coming Jamaican athletes.
“The key is to be mentally tough. Care for your body, eat right, sleep right, stay positive, and don’t stress and continue to work hard because the sky’s the limit,” she pointed out.
“Because it’s all in the head and no matter how hard you train, if you are not focused, you cannot execute what you put into your training,” she noted.
— Howard Walker