Newly crowned women’s 100m champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ended her campaign at the 2015 IAAF World Championships on a high, inspiring a fantastic finish for Jamaica’s 4x100m women’s relay team with a Championship Record (CR) of 41.07s, thus erasing their former CR of 41.29 from two years ago.
The Jamaican team came to Beijing favoured to retain their title, and they lived up to expectations, claiming their fourth World Championships crown, having achieved same in 1991, 2009 and 2013 in Moscow, which they also won with a WL and CR. Their male counterparts, anchored by Usain Bolt, also won the men’s 4x100m ahead of the USA and others, making it DOUBLE GOLD for the Caribbeans in the 4x100m.
The women took the lead in the heats, clocking a World Lead (WL) of 41.84s to dominate their rivals. The race was executed by Sherone Simpson, Natasha Morrison, Kerron Stewart and Fraser-Pryce. Great Britain followed in 2nd with a Season’s Best (SB) of 42.48s as Canada returned a time of 42.60s, which was a National Record (NR) for the North Americans.
Russia took 4th with 43.09s. The Nigerian team comprising of Gloria Asumnu, Stephanie Kalu, Deborah Odeyemi and Cecilia Francis finished 8th in the race, and was eliminated ahead of the final.
Team USA was ably represented by English Gardner, Allyson Felix, Jenna Prandini and Jasmine Todd. The quartet won Heat 2 with a time of 42.00s, with Trinidad and Tobago, the Netherlands and Germany all coming home in 42.24s, 42.32s and 42.64s respectively to make it to the final.
Jamaica’s 4x100m women were impeccable in the final, executing the race to perfection to smash the two-year old CR. Beijing 2015 200m Bronze medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown took off with a powerful start, before handing over to Morrison who maintained the tempo, and handed the baton to Elaine Thompson who claimed Silver in the 200m a day before.
The Jamaican champion further widened the gap with a scorching run, leaving Fraser-Pryce to do honours of coasting home, unrivalled, to take the GOLD medal ahead of USA, which fielded the same team that ran in the heats. The battle for Bronze was between Trinidad and Tobago and Great Britain, but it was the former that had an edge, clocking a National Record of 42.03s.
Germany and Canada finished in 5th and 6th respectively with 42.64s (SB) and 43.05s. The Netherlands, which had European Record holder Dafne Schippers running the third leg, was eventually disqualified for a changeover infringement. The Russian team failed to finish the race after suffering some mishaps during the baton exchange.
