Jamaica and The London 2012 Olympics: Profile and Schedule of Veronica Campbell-Brown, 100 metres sprinter

By: Denise N. Fyffe.
Copyright © 2012, Poetess Defy, Denise N. Fyffe

Jamaican female 100 metres sprinters will be on display today at the London 2012 Olympics, Track and Field segment. Veronica Campbell-Brown, Shelly Ann-Fraser-Pryce and Kerron Stewart are expected to dominate and qualify for the semi-finals and finals of the 100 metres.

According to Wikipedia, Veronica Campbell-Brown C.D (born 15 May 1982) is a Jamaican track and field sprint athlete who specializes in the 100 and 200meters.^[1] A five-time Olympic medalist, she is the reigning World and Olympic 200 m champion. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she ran the 200 m in 21.74 seconds (the fastest time in a decade) and became the second woman in history to win two consecutive Olympic 200 m events, after Bärbel Wöckel of Germany at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics.^[2] Campbell-Brown is one of only eight athletes to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.

At the end of the 2008 season, Campbell-Brown was selected the top 200 m runner in the world as well as the fourth best in the 100 m (following three other Jamaicans) by Track and Field News. She also finished eighth overall in voting for the magazine’s Woman of the Year.^[6]

She qualified for her third World Championships by winning the 200 m national title. She beat runners up Shelly Ann Fraser andSimone Facey with a time of 22.40 seconds in June 2009, although a toe injury had left her lacking full fitness.^[7] At the 2009 World Championships Campbell-Brown was fourth in the 100 m final behind teammates Fraser and Stewart. She then won her second World 200 m silver behind American Allyson Felix. She closed the season at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, recording her fastest of the year (10.89) to take second behind Carmelita Jeter, who became the second fastest ever with 10.64 seconds.^[8] Although she was beaten by Jeter, Campbell-Brown was the fourth fastest 100 m sprinter overall that season.^[9]

In 2010 she won her first World Indoor 60m Gold medal in a time of 7.00. She later went on to run the fastes time for the 200m in 21.98 in New York. She also ran a 10.78 in Eugene Oregon beating Fraser Pryce and jeter .

In 2011 Veronica Campbell-Brown won the Jamaican athletic trials in both the 100 & 200 m and was one of the favorites for both gold medals at the world championships in Daegu. At the championships she won the silver medal in the women’s 100 m in 10.98 behind Jeter, who won in 10.90. She later went on to win her first 200 m world title in a timer of 22.22, beating Jeter and Felix who were second and third respectively.

In 2012 she defended her 60m World Indoor Gold medal where she won in a time of 7.01. Later in June Veronica qualified for the 2012 Olympic games in London in both the 100m and the 200m. In the 100m she came second behind Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce, who ran a Jamaican record of 10.70. In the 200m she finished third behind Fraser-Pryce and Sherone Simpson.