Jamaica's athletes had their best day at the 15th IAAF World Athletics Championships in Beijing, China, on Friday, securing four medals - one gold, two silver, and a bronze.
The main highlight of the day was the gold medal won by 21year-old Danielle Williams in the women's 100 metre hurdles final. Williams won in a personal best 12.57 secs, improving her semi-final personal best by 1/100th of a second to create one of the biggest upsets of the championships so far.
None of the fancied women were on the podium. It became disastrous for the USA from the semifinals, when Dawn Harper Nelson fell in her heat, and Kendra Harrison left the start of her semifinal, after she false started and was disqualified.
Cindy Roleder of Germany in lane 8 took the silver in 12.59 secs while Belarus' Alina Talay captured the bronze in lane-2 in 12.66 secs, bookending Jamaica's Danielle Williams who was dead centre of the field in lane 5.
Danielle's older sister Shermaine was also in the final, finishing 7th in lane 9 in 12.95 secs, the first time Jamaica fielded siblings in an individual final. It's the first time since 1983 that siblings participated in an individual final at the World Championships.
Jamaica last won the women's sprint hurdles gold medal in 2009 in Berlin when Brigitte Foster-Hylton won gold from the centre of the track ahead of Deloreen Ennis London who took the bronze.
Women's 200m final
Jamaica's Elaine Thompson ran a sizzling race in the women's 200 metre final, clocking the 5th fastest time in history, 21.66 secs, her personal best, but it was good enough for the silver medal as the big Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers wore down Thompson to win the gold in 21.63 secs. Schippers' time is a new championship record, a Dutch national record, and the third fastest time ever recorded over the distance.
The highly decorated Veronica Campbell Brown, 33, showed that her demise is exaggerated, as she lifted the bronze from the difficult lane 2 in her season's best 21.97 secs. Jamaica's third runner in the event, Pan American 100 metre champion Sherone Simpson was 8th in a season's best 22.50 secs.
Men's 110mH final
Jamaica's 4th medal on the day saw Olympic bronze medallist Hansle Parchment winning the silver medal in the men's 110 metre high hurdles in 13.03 secs.
Russia's Sergey Shubenkov won the gold in 12.98 secs, a national record. Olympic champion and world record holder Aries Merritt won the bronze in 13.04. Merritt who is beset with a kidney ailment, is set to have a kidney transplant in about two weeks . It clearly makes a statement about his courage to perform under such circumstances.
Jamaica's second runner in the final, Omar McLeod, the national champion and NCAA division-1 champion who came into the event with the fastest time this year, hit all but two hurdles to finish 6th in 13.18 secs. France had three runners in the final, Pascal Martinot LaGarde, Garfield Darien and Dimitri Bascou, none managed to find a podium spot.
In two other finals, Tianna Bartoletta (formerly Madison) won the women's long jump with a leap of 7.14 metres, a world leading performance. Britain's Shara Proctor won the silver with 7.07 metres and Serbia's Ivana Spanovic was third with 7.01 metres, a national record.
China hit the board with gold and silver in the women's 20 kilometre walk final in a close finish, as Hong Liu lifted the gold in 1 hr 27 mins 45 secs; Xiuzhi Lu won the silver in 1 hr 27 mins 45 secs. Ukraine's Lyudmyla Olyanovska won the bronze in 1 hr 28 mins 13 secs.
Jamaica is now 3rd in the overall medal count with 9 medals, 4 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze; the USA is second with 14 medals, 4 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze; Kenya tops the standings with 11 medals, 6 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze.
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