Jamaican sprinter beats 100m gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and reigning champion Dina Asher-Smith with scintillating 21.45 at the World Champs in Eugene

After a summer of intrigue and high expectation, Shericka Jackson ultimately ran out an emphatic winner of the women’s 200m in Eugene on Thursday (July 21). Her time of 21.45 (0.6) was the second-fastest time in history, the quickest for 34 years and a World Championships record. Some would argue it is also the unofficial world record due to doubts over Florence Griffith Joyner’s 21.34 from 1988.

“I’m the fastest woman alive!” Jackson whooped as she took in the moment during her post-race interviews.

On a night of amazingly fast 200m finals, Jackson sped around the curve and powered into the home straight as she drew away from her closest rivals – fellow Jamaican and world 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Britain’s reigning world champion Dina Asher-Smith.

Fraser-Pryce ran 21.81 and Asher-Smith 22.02 as the 28-year-old winner clocked a remarkable 10.41 for the second half of her race. Behind, Aminatou Seyni of Niger was fourth in 22.12, US champion Abby Steiner fifth in 22.26, another American Tamara Clark sixth in 22.32, Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica seventh in 22.39 and Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland eighth in 22.55.

“I’m the fastest woman alive and ran the national and championships record, so I cannot complain,” said Jackson. “I was not thinking about any time or any records. Each round, I go out and want to execute better and better. It feels very good to be in the prominent company of these elite runners. And this is my first individual gold at the World Championships so I am just grateful.”

Jackson is planning to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham but is not yet sure which event she will do. Fraser-Pryce, however, does not intend to run in Birmingham and said: “I was really, really tired physically and mentally here and still I wanted to come out and have a good run.”

Asher-Smith lost her world title but she was delighted to win a medal in such a tough field. “I am so happy,” she said. “The calibre of that final was insane. All those women are capable of running sub-22 and I don’t think we’ve ever been in a world final with that kind of talent.

“For me I knew that I just had to run as fast as my legs were going to carry me and really pray and hope that it was enough to get on the podium. I am so happy to have got it.”

Seyni made a name for herself at these championships by becoming the first athlete from Niger to reach a world final. “I hope this experience will help me a lot to eventually aim for a world title,” she said.

Fifth-place Steiner, meanwhile, was enjoying her 55th race of the season but is not surprisingly now looking forward to an end-of-season break.

Elsewhere, the women’s 800m heats saw all four Brits qualify. Keely Hodgkinson won her heat in 2:00.88 while GB team-mates Jemma Reekie (1:59.09), Ellie Baker (2:01.72), Alex Bell (2:01.25) also went through. Former GB athlete-turned-Jamaican Adelle Tracey ran a PB of 1:59.20 to qualify too.

“I’m just glad to have started racing,” said Hodgkinson, “as I was going a bit stir crazy.”