We have 3 Jamaicans in the Semis but I believe only Simone Facey has a chance of advancing to the Final.
This is another very competitive event, even with Torie Bowie out of it. The ladies to look out for are Dafne Schippers and Marie Josee Ta Lou. If Shaunae Miller-Uibo didn’t injure herself in the 400m Final and her legs still have the energy, she is likely to come back with determination since she missed out on the podium for the 400m. She has the fastest time of the season (21.91) amongst who is left, since Bowie who had a SB of 21.77 is out.
I won’t even attempt to make any predictions as to the placement on the podium based on how things have been going in London. Note however, that even though Dafne Schippers has a SB of 22.10, she has a PB of 21.63 and does not like to lose. She is an extremely sore loser. I see her grasping at the opportunity for Gold with Bowie and her rival, Elaine out of the 200m.
On the other hand, Ta Lou is such a free spirit with nothing to lose and everything to gain. She reminds me of our Pocket Rocket, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
Who can spoil the party?
The American, Deajah Stevens.
Can’t wait for the Semis and the Final tomorrow at 3:50pm!
Women’s 400m Hurdles Final
This Final is another toss up as the Americans including the RIO Olympic champ, Dalilah Muhammad, may be out of shape. Defending World Champ, Zuzana Hejnová of Czech Republic has been looking good though.
Look out for our Ristananna Tracey. Can she get another Bronze for Jamaica? We need it.
Here is the line up!
Men’s 200m Final
This race is stacked! It’s anybody’s game. Wayde Van Niekerk looked tired in the Semis, struggling to finish 3rd and qualified as a fastest loser, but he didn’t look impressive in the 400m Semis either. I won’t be counting him out. Hoping for good weather!
From what I know so far, Makwala will be running out of Lane 6 and Van Niekerk will be running out of Lane 3.
The Schedule for the rest of the Championships!
I’m not expecting any medals for Jamaica from the Women’s 100m Hurdles but I am hoping with the Relays we can come home with at least 5 medals.
The RELAYS
It is too early to tell but we all know with Relays anything can happen. Team USA and others are in better shape than Team Jamaica in terms of speed, but we are hoping that our athletes put out their best and also execute smooth baton exchanges! Expecting a good performance from our 4×400m Women!
Good luck Jamaica! Stay tuned!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
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As predicted by Suga, Mohamed Farah won the 10000m! He is on his way to his 5th DOUBLE! CONGRATS MO! All things being well with a stomach bug going around, he will run in the Men’s 5000m. The Heats start today at 2:05pm.
Men’s 200m SemiFinal
We have Rasheed Dwyer and Yohan Blake left to compete, but it is doubtful that Dwyer will advance to the Final from Lane 9 in the Semis.
Blake is our only hope for a medal but don’t be surprised if he doesn’t make the podium. I believe he is facing a mental battle everytime he reaches or approaches top speed as a result of his recent injury that was very severe. It is unlikely he will release the beast ever again. We cannot blame him though because suffering an injury a 2nd time that was more severe than the first will have him running on the edge with a fear that it could put him out for a long time again with no guarantee of return. We wish him well.
There is currently a lot of controversy surrounding Botswana’s Isaac Makwala being out of the 400m. It is said that he was seen vomiting before the 200m Heats, hence why he did not enter. But he says he felt better and was in good condition to run the 400m Final. He was staying at a hotel where the norovirus swept through and he was suspected to have it because he was seen vomiting. In order to avoid the risk of contaminating other athletes, Makwala was denied entry to the London stadium, also due to a British Public Health order of proclamation. Makwala wasn’t even tested for the norovirus or seen medically so he was not a happy camper.
Makwala made this facebook post:
Despite all the controversy, the show must go on. World Record holder, Wayde Van Niekerk of South Africa won the 400m easily and is going for the double in the 200m. He has the fastest time of 19.84 for the season.
To contest him, other than our Yohan Blake, we should look out for his compatriot, Akani Simbine, Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago, Great Britain’s Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Isiah Young of the USA.
The Frenchman, Christophe Lemaitre is still in it. He may have done his time finally achieving Bronze at the Olympics after many attempts, but he always does his best.
The Final is tomorrow at 3:52pm.
Men’s 400m Hurdles Final
Jamaica has Kemar Mowatt running out of Lane 3. We don’t expect a medal from him but we welcome pleasant surprises.
All eyes will be on RIO Olympic champ, Kerron Clement of the USA to see if anyone challenges him for the Gold.
Women’s 400m Final
The USA thinks Allyson Felix finally has this one in the bag and has scrutinized or accused Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas for ‘diving’ across the line to win Gold in RIO.
Can Shaunae make it look like her win was clean at RIO Olympics 2016 and upset Felix?
We have 3 Jamaicans in the Final who are well known to us – Shericka Jackson, Novlene Williams-Mills and Stephenie Ann McPherson. Depending on their strategy and focus, you cannot count them out for a bronze. However, USA’s Phyllis Francis has been running well and may stand in their way. So too is Salwa Naser of Bahrain, originally from Nigeria.
Here is the line up!
Tomorrow’s Schedule:
Stay tuned to Suga Lifestyle!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
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Usain Bolt was beaten in his last race! He got the Bronze.
Young Christian Coleman got Silver and fellow rival, Yohan Blake finished 4th. That leaves Justin Gatlin!
Gatlin who has been quiet all season with a point to prove, proved his point, quieting the boos from the crowd who haven’t forgiven him for his doping suspension even though he served his time.
Gatlin made it look deceiving in the Semis. He placed 2nd to Akani Simbine in the slowest SemiFinal, drawing Lane 8, possibly so he could be far from Bolt in the Final and see everyone who couldn’t see him.
What happened to Usain Bolt?!
Bolt’s preparation was probably the worst ever for this season with a loss of 3 weeks to his friend’s Germaine Mason’s death as well as more time due to injuries.
His body gave up on him too. With age and injuries on top of a bad start, he could no longer power himself past the 50 or 60m line to destroy his field of opponents. He did everything physically possible to reach the line with Coleman and Gatlin. But it still wasn’t good enough because he is not used to being so far behind coming up to the line with no power. He panicked and started to lean too early. With his foot across the line early and the 2nd slowest reaction time of 0.183 in the race to Coleman’s 0.123 and Gatlin’s 0.138, he ran the fastest race.
If Usain took one more step as the taller man, just as Coleman did, I believe he would have edged out Gatlin for the win.
So it wasn’t a surprising result, but a disappointing result. It was a fairytale ending that wasn’t meant to be. It not only showed that Bolt is human, but it was a lesson taught and inspiration to many, that if you try hard enough, you can beat the best and be the best. After the best have won over and over again, a small part of the motivation to win is lost as well.
Gatlin could never beat Usain at his best or in good shape. However, Bolt still reigned as the fastest man in the world and we cannot discredit Gatlin’s determination after never being able to beat Bolt, to finally beat him and win the Gold at his age. Sadly it happened at a time when Bolt will not run another race to answer. Bolt was gracious in defeat and we should be too.
Bolt said to Jamaica – ‘Sorry about that’. He knows how we can be with just one disappointment on the big stage. He surely cannot please everyone. Let us remember that if it was entirely up to Bolt he would have retired at the RIO Olympics 2016, but under the encouragement and influence of PUMA and the IAAF, they wanted him to come back to Worlds for a filled stadium and for the fans. We saw how hard it was for Usain to get the Gold in the 100m at RIO, much less a year later. I would have preferred for him to finish winning as most of us would, but there are others who may not care about the results of his last race, whether it was a win, lose or draw. They just wanted to see him run one more time. Thankfully he was realistic with himself and left his winning streak in his preferred 200m event, safe.
Thanks for everything you have done for Jamaica and Athletics Usain Bolt! We will miss you (Photo: AMP. Firstpost)
Bolt led a winning era for us from 2008 Beijing. That is almost a decade. We have a lot to be thankful for. So this brings me to Elaine Thompson losing in the Women’s 100m FINAL.
It was considered sure money for Elaine to win the Women’s 100m. She had the winning time, jogging in the Semis. So to place 5th, something must have gone wrong. None of us wanted that to happen at such a huge event, where we expected her to deliver Gold to lift Jamaica after Usain’s Bronze the day before. What made it worse?
Thankfully, she did not injure herself. She has been suffering with an achilles tendon injury, but this did not play a part in her loss.
She stated that she stumbled coming out of the drive phase, isn’t sure why and could not recover fast enough to pass the others who were already far ahead of her to the finish line.
Our local tv panel explained how this was possible. With her running at such a fast speed, to come out of a drive phase quickly would be like hitting a wall. We saw when she literally jerked back at about 50m. To lose focus or for something to go wrong for just a few thousandths of a second in an 11-second race, the field would already have left her behind. She still showed great effort to finish 5th. I have witnessed our Pcket rocket, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce come last in a 100m Diamond league race because she failed to recover from a bad start. People wondered what went wrong but she wasn’t crucified for it because it was not a big race.
These things can happen and she was in good spirits to continue with the 4×100m, refusing to blame the loss on anything else that was going on. As it later came out that she was seen vomiting in the warm up area after the Semis.
So yes this may have happened to Elaine but we didn’t even take the time to consider it and haven’t accepted it because we are looking at the bigger picture that it was another win for the USA in the sprint. Her coach, Stephen Francis also let her put all her eggs in one basket since she is not entered to run the 200m.
It is also a huge upset because USA has been our biggest rival for years. We have been on top for almost a decade and trust me, it took what seems like forever to get there. In a time where it was speculated more than half of the USA athletes were on drugs and doping regulations were not as strict, we painfully watched our hard working athletes such as Merlene Ottey, Juliet Cuthbert, Grace Jackson and more, get Silver and Bronze medals time and time again, always falling short of the Gold. We cried with them each time. We were also stuck watching the extremely biased USA feed to go along with it, rubbing salt into our wounds. We suffered. As a result, when Sprint athletes like Marion Jones and Justin Gatlin were given doping bans, it was like we were finally being freed from a great injustice. But so much damage had been done already, for instance with the Women’s 100m World record being totally unattainable, it left us being a bitter nation. So with the field leveled at a time when we had young and upcoming athletes like Usain bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, along with the veteran Veronica Campbell Brown and more, the timing was right for total redemption in Beijing 2008. Jamaica showed total dominance in the sprints with both the Men and the Women, shocking the Americans who thought it was a one-time fluke. But oh no, this continued to RIO 2016. We have not only been spoilt but developed an arrogance through bitterness.
All is not lost though. It is a change of the guard and we may have to wait again until others rise, but Elaine is still young and as she said, she has many more races to come.
There is a good outlook for us in Field events too. Fedrick Dacres finished 4th in the Discus throw. It was not his personal best, but that will come at the right time once he keeps working at it. We had Traves Smikle, who also made it to the Final round.
Photo: The Jamaica Gleaner
We also have …
Omar McLeod
Young Omar McLeod won Gold in the Men’s 110m, lifting Jamaica’s spirits and dedicated the Gold to Usain Bolt.
So keep the faith and be patient Jamaica. Stand by our Athletes win or lose because we are a talented nation and again we will RISE.
Continue to enjoy the sport, stay tuned for today’s Schedule that starts later this afternoon with hot races to look out for!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
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It’s finally here! The World Championships in London, where Usain Bolt says he is ready to run his final 100m race and win!
Will Gatlin stand in his way? He has been unusually quiet this season but he is in good shape for the win and says he feels like the last time he won Worlds. But will he be a ‘bus conducta’ to collect silver just one more time?
Andre DeGrasse of Canada certainly won’t be standing in Bolt’s way. He didn’t even make it on the bus. He pulled out of the Championships officially yesterday with a hamstring strain.
Anyone else on the London bus? Ivory Coast’s Simbine always runs his best and a good race. But Suga doesn’t think he has what it takes for the win.
Young Coleman of the USA faded at US trials, tiring at the line to finish 2nd to Gatlin. So that is an indication that he needs to eat more cassava and is not ready for Jamaica’s Usain Bolt either.
Last but not least, let’s not forget Yohan Blake, formerly known as The Beast, now The Blessed. When he decides to just be himself he may have a good chance at Gold if it’s not too late.
Women’s 100m
Looking forward to see our Sprint Queen, Elaine Thompson light up the track in the Women’s 100m. She is currently in a class by herself.
Men’s 400m
Wayde Van Niekerk is also in a class by himself for the Men’s 400m. He’s entered to run the Men’s 200m too, which should be am easier task with DeGrasse out of the way.
Women’s 400m
Suga doesn’t think Bahamas’ Shaunae Miller is going to get past USA’s Allyson Felix this time, dive or no dive. Felix is in great shape for the win and will have fresh legs since the 400m is her only individual race.
Jamaica’s veteran, Novelene Williams-Mills may be competing for the last time but has been running well on the circuit. Suga hopes she can come away with the Bronze.
However her own compatriots, Shericka Jackson, Ristananna Tracey and Ronda Whyte may stand in her way. Ronda Whyte created quite an upset at the Jamaica trials, passing Ristananna Tracey and Shericka at the finish.
Women’s 200m
The Women’s 200m should be a showdown with USA’s Tori Bowie, Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas, Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou and the ‘Dutchie’, Daphne Schippers.
Men’s 5000m and 10000m
Mohammed Farah aka Mobot of Great Britain should shine in his long distance races. He, like Usain Bolt is looking to cement his legacy on the track before hanging up his spikes and moving on to racing gear. He is going for the big Five, as he has already doubled twice at the Olympics and Worlds in the 5000m and 10000m.
Thanks for making Long Distance races entertaining Mo!
Women’s 800m
Caster Semenya, another long distance fave, is in position to win the Women’s 800m. Suga sees noone challenging her.
Men’s 400m Hurdles
If age doesn’t play a number, the race for Gold should be between Olympic Champ, USA’s Kerron Clement (31 years) and young BVI’s Kyron McMaster (20yrs).
Jamaica’s National Champ, Jaheel Hyde and Kemar Mowatt also have a chance to medal.
Women’s 400m Hurdles
Olympic Champ, Dalilah Mohammad of the USA looked unbeatable at the US trials, clocking 52.64. However in recent performances she has failed to run below 54s.
Of the two other US athletes who looked strong at trials, both under 53s, only Kori Carter has been running at a high standard.
So Suga thinks, if the others peaked too early and fail to get back into form, Jamaica’s Janieve Russell has a good chance to get the Silver.
Men’s 110m Hurdles
Reigning Olympic Champ, Omar McLeod of Jamaica is the favourite for the Men’s 110m Hurdles but others are in good shape including former Olympic Champ, Aries Merritt. With Hurdles, anything can happen.
Women’s 100m Hurdles
It’s the same with the Women’s 100m hurdles. World record holder, USA’s Kendra Harrison should win on paper, but she choked at the US Olympic trials failing to even make the team to the Olympics. Does she have it in her to finally win gold?
Defending World Champ, Danielle Williams is in good shape but we all know she got that title by ‘buck ups’ due to a string of false starts, falls and injuries. Her competitors are in another league. However, if she keeps full focus and runs her race, she has the potential to go for at least the bronze medal. Don’t get your hopes up for her though.
Former Olympic Champ, Sally Pearson from Australia is back after a nasty fall that injured her arm severely. She is back but not fully back. She is definitely a contender for the podium though. So is, USA’s Sharika Nelvis.
Men’s Discus Throw
Will Jamaica’s Fredrick Dacres throw to his full potential this time around? If so, he has a good chance of getting the Silver with a SB of 68.88. Sweden’s Daniel Stâhl has thrown over 71 this season!
Our other Jamaican Competitor, Traves Smikle has been doing well and so have the Polish duo of Robert Urbanek and Piotr Malachowski.
Lithuania’s Andrius Gudžius and Belgium’s Philip Milanov also have a chance to medal.
What times are the big races? Here is your Schedule up to Tuesday, showing the races you should not miss!
***Usain Bolt will be running the 100m today and God’s willing tomorrow, as well as the 4×100m relay.
Well that’s your Pre-Champs low down folks. Stay tuned to Suga for more and enjoy the long weekend!
Drink responsibly.
By: Gabrielle Burgess
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I have been following Angela Davis on Instagram, who is a self-taught home cook, recipe developer, private chef and author located in Maryland, D.C.
She had a Sunday Dinner Party two weekends ago, titled ‘Christmas in July’. It was also hosted by Clinton Mitchell and his wife. There were 12 guests, who were a mixture of followers, friends and clients that hit it off quickly and had rave reviews, using the hashtag, #KitchenistaSundays on Instagram.
The Dinner was the Feast of 7 Dishes with an Italian Seafood theme. The prelude included Crostinis with anchovy butter and radishes, an Italian Seafood salad, a Vegetable salad and stuffed Clams.
A slow roasted pistachio crusted Salmon followed for the main course. A guest said it was the best Salmon they have ever had.
All of that was topped off with Roasted figs along with whipped goat cheese and a Lemon Olive Oil Cake.
The Kitchenista also did a live Pasta making demo that streamed on twitter. You can check her website link below for more information, get added to her mailing list for upcoming events and check out some of her recipes as well.
For all my Suga Bears in DC, don’t wait till I get there. Send this Kitchenista an email so you can taste her magic because there will be more Kitchenista Sundays!
