Veteran sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown is happy that the island continues to produce sprinters, which helped her to win her eighth Olympic Games, when she helped Jamaica to the silver medal in the women’s 4×100 metres in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Friday night.
Campbell-Brown, ran the third leg as Jamaica finished in 41.36 seconds in the race, which was won by the United States of America in 41.01 with Great Britain finishing third in 41.77.
Campbell-Brown, who won her first Olympics medal at Sydney, Australia in 2000 again as part of the 4×100 metres team, collected the baton from Elaine Thompson, the 100 and 200 metres gold medallist. She then passed to Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce, the bronze medallist in the 100 metres. The race was started by Christania Williams, who finished eighth in the 100 metres.
“We are doing a good job of keeping the (sprinting) tradition alive. The ones that have gone before have set the pace and we have continued and we are trying to or even do better than the past generations. So it has been going well and I just hope that we can continue creating great athletes and keep staying on top in the sprint. Hopefully, we can start branching off into more events and get deeper,” she said.
Campbell-Brown gave a disappointing performance in the 200 metres, as she failed to advance beyond the heat for the first time in her Olympics career. She, however, said that she has gotten over that already.
“I try to put that 200 metres behind me because I can’t change it, so it doesn’t make sense that I dwell on it. Things happen and sometimes you can’t explain it. But God has been so good to me.
“Tonight I earn my eighth Olympics medal, so I have to be grateful. It has been a blessing, it has been up and down. I know He is not finished with me yet and I am just grateful that we are able to get on the podium tonight.
“I think we did well. The baton passes were good and we did our best. We were going for the gold but we fell short but we will be going for it again next year as we never give up. I have to give God thanks. A lot of people leaving here and they don’t earn anything, so I have to be grateful for what we achieve here tonight,” said.
