12 medals predicted for Jamaica on return to London
The return to London — like the return to the Bird’s Nest in Beijing two years ago — for Jamaica’s track and field stars seems promising.
The 2017 IAAF World Championships will be held at the London Stadium August 4-13, and Jamaica’s athletes are expected to haul double-digit medals.
Unsurprisingly, the pre-story of the Championships surrounds Usain Bolt’s impending retirement and his last individual race on the international level in the 100 metres. Nevertheless, several other Jamaican stars are expected to shine brightly as they announce themselves or seek to cement their arrival on the world stage. Jamaica’s track and field fans and pundits have made bold and cautious predictions in relation to Jamaica’s medal haul at these Championships.
Usain Bolt and Elaine Thompson, Jamaica’s leading stars, are expected to capture medals in the men’s and women’s 100 metres, respectively. However, if any of the two fails to win gold, it’s likely to be Bolt.
The great Jamaican champion enters the Championships as the seventh-fastest athlete this year, with a clocking of 9.95 seconds in his last tune-up before the World Championships, his only sub-10 time so far in 2017.
Nevertheless, these lethargic performances heading into a major championship has been the Bolt blueprint for the past three World Championships and the past two Summer Olympics. So, the belief remains that he will win again, but he just might lose as he nearly did in 2015.
His compatriot, Yohan Blake has looked the more polished and determined of the two to capture a medal in the 100m. Blake has recorded the second-best time of the year in the event, with 9.90 at the JAAA National Senior Championships. Nonetheless, with his groin injury recently, fears are that he might be left out of the medals.
With no athlete running mind-boggling times this year, if fully healthy, Blake is as much a favourite for the gold as Bolt.
On the female side, Thompson is a shoo-in to mine a medal in the Women’s 100m. With the two best times this year, 10.71 and 10.78 seconds, and three of the top-seven times, Thompson is the runaway favourite for gold in the Women’s 100m.
Her imperious form over the 100m has been reassuring, and the only person who can beat her is herself or injury. The expectation is a personal best and a new national record in the final, which would propel her to third or a sole fourth place on the all-time list.
O’Dayne Richards, Jamaica’s sole threat in the men’s shot put, has been rounding into form at the right time. His throw of 21.96m at the Rabat Diamond League last week ranks him the fifth-best thrower of 2017. If Richards reproduces a similar throw above 22m, a place on the podium, like in 2015, and another national record is assured. He has an outside chance of capturing a bronze or silver medal at the championships.
The 23-year-old Fedrick Dacres, who is called Johnny Bravo by his friends, is another thrower for Jamaica who is predicted to capture a medal in the field. Dacres, the second-best discus thrower in 2017, and who has three of the top-six throws, is a gold medal threat, but more realistically is envisioned to cop a silver medal behind Daniel Ståhl of Sweden.
The youth and junior discus champion has had 10 throws this season above the qualifying mark of 65.00m, the joint-most along with Andrius Gudžius of Lithuania. The medals should be among those three — Ståhl, Dacres and Gudžius.
Jamaica’s heir apparent to Bolt, in terms of dominance of a single event, is Omar McLeod. Since his explosion on the world scene, McLeod has hurtled the 110m hurdles event with power and authority.
Currently, he is the number one sprint hurdler in the world and has five of the top-seven times, with a personal best of 12.90 seconds. Like in 2009 in the 100m hurdles for women with Brigitte Foster-Hylton and Delloreen Ennis-London, McLeod along with Ronald Levy, the third-ranked runner in the event, are expected to cop medals in the men’s sprint hurdles event.
With the Russian Sergey Shubenkov and the American and world record holder Aries Merritt producing respectable times in the last month, Levy will have to dig deep to secure his podium spot, but a podium spot is his for the taking.
Shericka Jackson, the sixth-ranked woman this year over the 400 metres, will be in a dogfight for third place again at this year’s World Championships. Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Allyson Felix are the clear favourites for the gold and silver medals, with a trio of Americans — Quanera Hayes, Phyllis Francis and Kendall Ellis — down to combat Jackson for the bronze medal.
Jackson’s raw speed and all of her championship mettle will be required to snatch a spot on the podium. This is the most worrying of all the predictions.
Both the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams are expected to grasp gold, or at worst a silver medal in London. With Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Julian Forte and others running for Jamaica’s men’s team, and Elaine Thompson, Simone Facey, Jura Levy and the other ladies running for the women’s team, they will get fierce competition from the USA.
On the 4x400m relay side, the women’s team of Shericka Jackson, Chrisann Gordon, Novelene Williams-Mills, Anneisha McLaughlin-Whilby and others will once again fight with the USA for the gold. The USA team is very strong and should have four women in the flat event. A silver medal at worst is expected for Jamaica in this relay.
On the male side, the 4x400m men’s relay team is without their main weapon on the anchor leg, Javon Francis. However, Nathon Allen, who ran the second-fastest leg in Jamaica 4x400m history last year, along with upcoming Demish Gaye, Steven Gayle and the experienced national record holder Rusheen McDonald, cumulatively can challenge for the silver or bronze medal.