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.
Jackson did not go into details when she confirmed Wednesday that she would focus only on the 200, which is typically her better event. She 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.
“All the information that we can provide is that she is not going to participate in the 100 meters,” Watts told Reuters on Wednesday. “… I don’t know the reasons. I’m just dealing with what is the outcome.”
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 the favorite for the 100-meter gold medal.
Watts told Reuters that Shashalee Forbes would replace Jackson in the 100 meters. Forbes was fourth in the 100 in 11.04 seconds at the Jamaican trials.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, who won the sprint double at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and again in Tokyo three years ago, will not defend her titles after dropping out of the Jamaican trials last month with an Achilles injury.
Also on Wednesday, Nigeria’s Favour Ofili said she will not compete in the women’s 100 meters after her country’s athletics federation and Olympic organizing committee failed to enter her in the event.
“It is with great regret that I have just been told I will not be competing in the 100 metres at this Olympic Games,” the 21-year-old wrote on social media. “I qualified but those with the AFN [Athletics Federation of Nigeria] and NOC [national Olympic committee] failed to enter me. I have worked for 4 years to earn this opportunity. For what?”
Ofili’s coach and the AFN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ofili was registered for the women’s 200 and the 4×100 relay.
The United States has not won the women’s 100 title since Gail Devers topped the podium at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. American Marion Jones crossed the line first in Sydney in 2000 but was stripped of the gold for doping offenses.
The preliminary rounds of the women’s 100 at the Paris Games start Friday with the semifinals and final on Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
