Sherone Simpson (born August
12, 1984) is a track and
field sprint athlete, competing internationally for Jamaica
. She
is a gold medalist in the
4 x 100
meter relay from the
2004 Olympics and silver medalist in
2005 World
Championships and now is the silver medalist in the individual
event at the
2008
Summer Olympics after she tied for second with
Kerron Stewart in a photo finish. With her
personal best of 10.82 seconds in the
100 m,
Simpson is ranked fourth among Jamaican women, behind
Merlene Ottey,
Shelly-Ann Fraser and
Kerron Stewart. Simpson's 200 m personal best
of 22.00 seconds ranks her sixth among Jamaican women behind
Merlene Ottey,
Grace Jackson,
Juliet Cuthbert,
Veronica Campbell-Brown and
Kerron Stewart. She has run this time on two
occasions.
Simpson is coached by Stephen Francis in
Kingston,
Jamaica
, where she attends the University of
Technology. She is also a graduate of Manchester
High.
Simpson won the gold medal in the women's 200 m at the
2006 Commonwealth Games, beating
Olympic champion
Veronica Campbell
and completing a Jamaican sweep of 100-200 m gold medals. Jamaica
also won both sprint hurdles gold medals.
At the
2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing she competed at the
100 metres
sprint. In her first round heat she placed third behind
Yevgeniya Polyakova and
Jade Bailey in a time of 11.48 to advance to the
second round. There she improved her time to 11.02 seconds to win
her heat in front of
Muna Lee and
Chandra Sturrup. With 11.11 seconds
in her semi final race she placed fourth and earned her spot in the
Olympic final. In a remarkable race with fellow Jamaican
Shelly-Ann Fraser taking the gold, Simpson
and
Kerron Stewart both finished in
10.98 seconds to share the silver medal and to complete the
Jamaican sweep. Together with Fraser, Stewart,
Sheri-Ann Brooks,
Aleen Bailey and
Veronica Campbell-Brown she also
took part in the
4x100 metres
relay. In their first round heat (without Simpson and Stewart)
they placed first in front of Russia, Germany and China. Their time
of 42.24 seconds was the first time overall out of sixteen
participating nations. With this result they qualified for the
final in which they replaced Brooks and Bailey with Simpson and
Stewart. Eventually they did not finish their race due to a mistake
in the baton exchange.
Personal Bests
References
- Athlete biography: Sherone Simpson,
beijing2008.cn, ret: Aug 27, 2008
External links