By Mitch Phillips
BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Jamaica’s peerless Shericka Jackson delivered a command performance to retain her world 200 metres title in 21.41 seconds on Friday – the second-fastest time ever run.
Jackson, second in the 100m final, ran a brilliant bend, was two metres clear coming into the home straight and tore to the finish to win by a street. She crossed the line with a totally expressionless face as if she expected nothing else.
Jackson’s time beat her previous best of 21.45 – the championship record she set winning in Eugene last year.
It also edged her closer to the late Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 21.34 world record from the 1988 Olympics.
Gabby Thomas, who came to Budapest as the fastest in the world this year with the 21.60 that won the American trials, ran an excellent race to take silver in 21.81, but was not in the same picture as the champion.
Fellow American Sha’Carri Richardson claimed bronze with a personal best 21.92 running in the same lane nine from where she won gold in the 100m on Monday.
St Lucia’s Julien Alfred was fourth in 22.05 while Briton Daryll Neita ran another personal best of 22.16 for fifth.
All the medallists are expected to share the track one more time after Jamaica and the United States qualified for Saturday’s 4x100m relay final earlier on Friday.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ken Ferris)
