In my last post I dealt with
the men’s sprints, hurdles and relay predictions for London 2012, and with the
start of track and field now underway, in this piece I will provide my
thoughts and ideas as to how I believe the spoils will be shared amongst the
women competing at the games of the 30th Olympiad.
Only in a Jamaican context
can a women’s squad more than double the medal haul of their male counterparts
and the men get more fame, glory and adoration. In Beijing 2008 the Jamaican
women contingent won 8 medals – 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze yet the men were
the heroes… sorry let me rephrase that; ‘Bolt’ was the hero. While this may have been a justified phenomenon given the magnitude of Bolt’s performances, our women were scintillating in Beijing and deserve equal billing to their male counterparts full stop!!!
Just to refresh your memory and give you something to think about, here is how their medals were tallied.
100m - Shelly-Ann Fraser –
10.78 – Gold,
100m - Kerron Stewart –
10.98 - Silver
100m - Sherone Simpson –
10.98 – Silver.
200m – Veronica Campbell –
21.74 – Gold
200m - Kerron Stewart –
22.00 – Bronze
400m – Shericka Williams –
49.69 – Silver
400mh – Melaine Walker –
52.64 – Gold
4x400m – S. Williams S. Lloyd R. Whyte & N. Williams-Mills – 3:20.40 - Bronze
When you think that Jamaica has a population of 2.75m people, there is no other Country in the world of comparable size that can boast these medal credentials on the global stage and if I didn’t personally and publicly acknowledged our ladies for the astonishing performances of Beijing, please forgive me, I too was caught up in the Bolt of lightening that struck the globe and has distracted us ever since.
In my male prediction last
week I felt Jamaica will better its medal count from three to eight, guess what
though, I also think the women will out do them yet again. Here is how I see
the medals sharing in the sprints, hurdles and relays.
Women 100m
Many like me have ranked
Veronica Campbell-Brown as one of the all-time best sprinters to have graced
the track, her championship resume is impeccable but her team mate and
defending Olympic and World Champion is stockpiling her own list of championship
performances that has earned her the nick-name ‘pocket rocket”. Include Kerron Stewart, Carmelita Jeter,
Allyson Felix, Kelly-Ann Baptiste and we have a super Olympic final in the
making. The rocket pockets another Olympic gold medal beating VCB and Jeter into second and third respectively.
Gold - Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce - Jam
Silver - Veronica Campbell-Brown - Jam
Bronze - Carmelita Jeter - USA
Women’s 200m
I think Allyson ends her long chase for the Gold medal in this event and Shelly-Ann wins her second medal of these games.
Gold - Allyson Felix - USA
Silver - Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce - Jam
Bronze - Veronica Campbell-Brown - Jam
Women’s 400m
When Amantle Montsho won
this event last summer in Daegu, it rounded out pretty much an unbeaten season,
a season where one of the world’s premier quarter-milers – Sanya Richards-Ross
just didn’t seem to be able to get it right. Fast-forward to this season and
Sanya can’t seem to do any wrong. Add to that the return to form of Olympic
Champion Christine Ohurougu, Novelene Williams-Mills and the Russian pair of
Anastasia Kapachinskaya and Antonina Krivoshapka and we should have a tight
finish first through sixth. Defending Olympic champion
Ohurougu will be finishing fast but Sanya crowns herself in Olympic glory,
while Williams-Mills beats Montsho to the silver medal.
Gold - Sanya Richards-Ross - USA
Silver - Novelene Williams-Mills - Jam
Bronze - Amantle Montsho - Bot
Women’s 100m Hurdles
Ever so often there are a
few events at the Olympic games that you can all but write the winners name on
the medal and wait to play their national anthem and that’s that!!! Sally
Pearson of Australia has put herself in that awesome position and unless
something catastrophic happens the Gold medal should be hers to lose. Let me
hasten to add a caveat to the above, this is an obstacle event and anything can
happen at anytime; Dawn Harper the defending Olympic champion and Kelli Wells both
of the USA must not be messed with and could upset if Pearson stumbles.
Gold - Sally Pearson - Aus
Silver - Dawn Harper - USA
Bronze - Kelli Wells - USA
Women’s 400m Hurdles
This is the hardest event to
predict this year, most of the ladies been running half masked all year long,
kind of playing hide and seek waiting to see who is going to show first. Well
all the fun are over let the games begin. Melaine Walker, Kaliese Spencer,
Lashinda Demus, Peri Shakes-Drayton, Natalya Antyuhk forms the crème of the
crop and it should be a dandy of a race in the finals.
Walker is my choice for the
gold medal and I have a real sneaky feeling Spencer will be right there for the
silver. Shakes-Drayton and Demus will battle for the bronze.
Gold - Melaine Walker - Jam
Silver - Kaliese Spencer - Jam
Bronze - Peri Shakes-Drayton - GBR
Women’s 4x100m Relay
In 2008, Jamaica had
arguably a team that might have re-written history as the first women’s team to
run sub 41 seconds but as the saying goes with relays, the stick must get
around the track. This time around, if
the stick does get around both the US and Jamaica could go under 41 seconds.
Gold - Jamaica
Silver - USA
Bronze - GER
Women’s 4x400m Relay
Newspaper Headline: “Sanya
anchors USA to Victory in Women’s 4x400m relay!!!”
Gold - USA
Silver - Jam
Bronze - Russia
Well those are my picks all of nine (9) medals for the Jamaican ladies, which is one (1) more than Beijing. Enjoy the games it’s already been awesome!!!
Bless & Love
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