Oregon22 silver medal a 'redemption' for Shanieka Ricketts

EUGENE, Oregon: National triple jump champion Shanieka Ricketts has described her performance at the World Athletics Championships on Monday night as “redemption.”

The 30-year-old Ricketts had a consistent series of jumps to claim the silver medal in the women’s triple jump, rebounding after a fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

“It means the world to me,” she responded when asked about her performance.

“It means redemption because in Tokyo I was gutted,” she said.  “I finished in fourth and it’s better to finish in eighth place than to finish fourth, so to come back a year after and to redeem myself shows me that I am a champion and it shows me that sometimes you have a bad season but it doesn’t dictate who you are as a person or an athlete.”

World record holder Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela romped to her third world title with a leap of 15.47m for a margin of .58 over Ricketts, whose silver medal came with an effort of 14.89m.  Tori Franklin took bronze with a season’s best effort of 14.72m.

Ricketts’ 14.89m, which came on her first attempt for a season’s best, was briefly the world lead until the Venezuelan leapt to 15.47m, the gold medal jump, on her second attempt.

It secured her a second successive world silver behind Rojas after her runner-up finish in Doha.

 Ricketts, who was the last athlete to jump farther than Rojas in a competition when she claimed the 2019 Diamond League title, had a consistent series, with three of her jumps measured at 14.80m or beyond.

 “It was an incredible competition,” said Ricketts. “I wanted to start big so they could chase me because you know it’s a game. So I was hoping to improve during the rounds but it didn’t happen because of different factors including the wind and stuff like that.

 “But I am so grateful to hold on to the second  spot and to finish my second World Championships in the second place and to give Jamaica a silver medal.”

 Ricketts further stated she was inspired after seeing Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce winning her fifth world title in the 100m on Sunday and leading a Jamaican sweep of the medals.

“After the hiccups last night with Hansle we were in a rot and then to see the girls go 1-2-3 it motivated me to come out here tonight and to get a silver medal added to the tally,” said Ricketts, who will now head to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England from July 28 to August 8.