Jamaica's Shericka Jackson to contest only 200m in Paris - ESPN

Two-time 200-meter world champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica will not seek the sprint double at the Paris Olympics after dropping the 100 meters, saying Wednesday that the injury she suffered at a tuneup race earlier this month played a part in the decision.

Jackson said she will still run in her better race, the 200 meters, where she is the only woman other than the world-record holder, the late Florence Griffith Joyner, to finish in under 21.5 seconds.

She had clocked her season's best of 10.84 seconds to win the 100 at the Jamaican trials but pulled up with a calf cramp in her final outing before the Games in Hungary on July 9.

«It was a combination of things,» Jackson said. «I got hurt, and me and my coach felt like it was a good decision to only run one event.»

Earlier this week, Jackson's coach, Stephen Francis, told the Jamaica Gleaner website this week that Jackson «appears OK to me.»

Jackson, however, described the decision to pull out as coming from both herself and Francis.

«It was a combination of so much stuff that I personally don't want to talk about,» she said. «Sometimes you have to go through a rocky road to get where you're trying to go. And my rocky road has happened to me.»

Jackson had been considered a top contender in the 100 after winning bronze in the event at the Tokyo Games and finishing second at each of the past two world championships. But she has shown better results of late in the 200, winning the world title in 2022 and 2023.

Olympic debutant Tia Clayton and two-time Olympic 100-meter champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will carry Jamaica's best medal hopes in the event.

American world champion Sha'Carri Richardson, who holds the world leading time of 10.71 seconds this year, will start as