News Americas, DAEGU, Korea, Sat. Sept. 3, 2011: Jamaica’s sprint Queen has clinched the gold in the 200-m at the World Championships finally!
Veronica Campbell-Brown, 29, finally won one of the few titles missing from her massive collection with her powerful run Friday. Campbell-Brown, the twice Olympic champion in the 200-m and former World champion in the 100-m, entered the top of the homestretch with a narrow lead, but with 100-m winner Carmelita Jeter gaining.
With her advantage all but gone, she found a gear Jeter couldn’t and pulled away to win in 22.22, a season’s best. Felix closed fast but couldn’t catch the slowing Jeter, who edged her teammate 22.37 to 22.42 for silver.
“I thank God for giving me the strength to do this. I already had two silvers in this event and now finally I have the gold,” said Campbell-Brown after the win. “I know that Carmelita is very fast and I have raced against Allyson for many years. So I had to run a very strong curve. I managed to do so and this was the base for my victory.”
Meanwhile, the 200-men’s semi-finals also saw the second appearance of the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, who qualified as a favorite in today’s final. He won the second heat in 20.31 shutting down some 50 meters from the line.
The evening capper was a thriller as well, with the quartet of Greg Nixon, Bershawn Jackson, Angelo Taylor and Lashawn Merritt taking another gold for in the event for the U.S. But they had to work for it! Particularly anchor Merritt, the 400m silver medallist, who received the baton in third place behind Jamaica and South Africa but managed to pounce near the top of the homestretch to cross the line in 2:59.31. South Africa took silver and Jamaican the bronze.
The Jamaicans are not the only ones dominating the Championships. Grenadian teenager Kirani James won his country’s first ever World Championship medal on Tuesday when he captured the men’s 400 metres.
