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Jamaican quarter-milers Novlene Williams-Mills (left), Shericka Williams (centre), and Rosemarie Whyte will attempt to break the USA stranglehold on the women's 4x400m hurdles at the Daegu World Championships. - file
Having rarely ever missed a spot on the podium in the women's 4X400 metres Jamaica could equal their best ever performance by claiming gold medal at the Daegu World Championships, which gets under way next week.
The team's performance came at the 2001 Championships in Edmonton, Canada, when the quartet of Sandie Richards, Catherine Scott, Debbie-Ann Parris and Lorraine Fenton struck gold. That performance was followed by third in France, 2003, second in Helsinki in 2005, second in Osaka, 2007, and also second two years ago in Berlin.
Ahead of this year's edition of the event, many track and field pundits believe Jamaica could even stop the United States from claiming a third straight title, after success in 2005 and 2007. But, while the task is not beyond the Jamaicans, they will have to improve on their season best 3:23.82 done at the Penn Relays, where they finished third behind two quartets from the United States. The Jamaica team included Shericka Williams, Novlene Williams-Mills, Christine Day and Kaliese Spencer.
The US team won in a time of 3:22.92, defeating their B team who clocked a time of 3:23.17. The A team had Debbie Dunn, Allyson Felix, Natasha Hastings and Sanya Richards-Ross. The US team in Daegu will be without Dunn, who has since picked up an injury but should be strengthened by Francena McCorory, who at the Penn Relays ran the fastest split among all the athletes while competing on the B team.
However, the Jamaica team will be strong as the country's top athlete in the event this year, Rosemarie Whyte, with a best of 49.84 seconds should add more firepower to the team. Whyte along with Williams, Williams-Mills and the brilliant Spencer could give the country their first success since 2001.
In Felix and Richards-Ross, the United States have two great athletes, who have played important roles on their team winning at the last two Championships, and Jamaica will be hoping to have two athletes to nullify both of them on their respective legs.
