(From left) Chistine Day, Shericka Jackson, Stephenie-Ann McPherson, and Novlene Williams- Mills pose with their gold medals
BEIJING, China — Jamaica ended a 14-year winless streak when they captured the 4x400m relay in an exciting and enthralling battle with the United States of America (USA).
The quartet from the 400m final, Christine Day, Shericka Jackson, Stephenie McPherson and Novlene Williams-Mills, ended a long drought for Jamaica in the mile-relay capturing gold in a world-leading 3:19.13 minutes. The last time Jamaica won was in 2001 in Edmonton, Canada.
The much vaunted Americans with Jamaican-born Sanya Richards-Ross, Natasha Hastings, Allyson Felix and Francena McCorory were second in 3:19.44 with Great Britain some way back in third with 3:23.62 minutes.
“It feels great. It feels good to come out here and do it with these ladies. It was four of us in the final and four of us coming back. But couldn’t do it without them,” said Williams-Mills, who was timed at 49.64 as she reeled in McCororoy on the anchor leg.
Although Jamaica had four finalists from the straight event, they didn’t start the 4X400m as favourites because the Americans brought in fresh legs in Richards-Ross and McCorory to complement the individual champion Felix and Hasting. They had three of the fastest four times in the world.
Jamaica got a brilliant start from Day (50.5) who withstood the early burst from Richard-Ross (51.5) to hand over first to Shericka Jackson with a slender lead from lane seven.
“We have to give God thanks for the win. We came out to really get the gold and all four of us ensured that we played our part in bringing home the baton safely,” said Day.
Jackson, buoyed by her splendid bronze in the flat 400m, opened up a 15-metre lead on the back of a 49.4 split compared to Hasting’s 50.4 leg and gave McPherson a huge lead as Jamaica were well on their way to victory.
“We will continue to work hard and build on this medal. We won in Penn’s and now we win the World Championships so that’s a good start,” said Jackson.
But Felix produced the third fastest split in history — 47.72 — to reel in McPherson (50.19) at the top of the straight and handed off to McCorory with a two- to three-metre lead. McPherson said she just wanted to get the stick to Novlene and wasn’t worried when Felix went by.
“I wasn’t thinking about her (Felix) as I was more focused on finishing strong and to take the baton to Novlene and I did that,” said McPherson, last year’s Commonwealth champion.
McCorory was full of running and she quickly opened up a five-metre advantage on Williams-Mills, the 2007 silver medallist, but on the back of a storming 49.14 leg, Williams-Mills swept by McCorory who was timed at 49.93 for a famous victory for Jamaica.
Jamaica’s new 400m star, Jackson, who did 49.99 for bronze, said Day’s wonderful opening leg gave her a lot of confidence.
“It really motivated me a lot. I really wanted the gold, the United States has been beating Jamaica for a while and we said we are not bringing our ‘A’ game, today we brought an A+ game and that was good enough — world-leading and gold medal, we are happy,” said Jackson.