Jamaican Track and Field Athletes

Who is Veronica Campbell-Brown?

  

Veronica Campbell-Brown C.D (born 15 May 1982) is a track and field sprint athlete, competing internationally for Jamaica. 

A five-time Olympic medalist, she is the reigning World and Olympic 200 m champion. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she ran the 200 m in 21.74 seconds (the fastest time in a decade) and became the second woman in history to win two consecutive Olympic 200 m events, after Bärbel Wöckel of Germany did so at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics. Campbell-Brown is one of only seven athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Usain Bolt, Jacques Freitag, Yelena Isinbayeva, Jana Pittman, and Dani Samuels) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.

Early life

Campbell was born to Cecil Campbell and Pamella Bailey[3] in Clarks Town, Trelawny, Jamaica on 15 May 1982. She has nine brothers and sisters and attended Vere Technical High School in Clarendon before pursuing higher education in the United States.

Junior career

In 1999, she won two gold medals, the 100 m and 4 x 100 m relay at the inaugural IAAF World Youth Championships. The following year, she became the first female to win the sprint double at the IAAF World Junior Championships. She took the 100 m in 11.12 s (the current championship record) and the 200 m in 22.87 s. At the 2000 Olympic Games, she ran the second leg on the silver medal winning 4 x 100 m relay team. In 2001, she was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the 2001 CARIFTA Games. That year, she won 3 gold medals (100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay) in the junior (U-20) category.

College career

Campbell attended Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kansas, where she set several records and won many titles, including four national junior college titles in the 60, 100 and 200 metres both indoors and outdoors. She set the current record for Barton County CC in the outdoor 100 m and 200 m. Campbell also excelled in academics, earning an associates degree from Barton County in 2002 with a 3.8 grade average. She later attended the University of Arkansas, where she stood out as a sprint star in a program dominated by long-distance runners.

Professional career

Campbell-Brown ran at the 2000 Summer Olympics in the 4 x 100 m relay along with Tayna Lawrence, Beverly McDonald, Merlene Frazer and sprint veteran and Olympic legend, Merlene Ottey. They finished second in the finals in a time of 42.13, behind neighbours, Bahamas which gave 18 year old Campbell-Brown her first Olympic medal.

At the 2004 Olympics, Campbell first placed third in the 100 m and two days later won the 200 m, beating out Allyson Felix of the United States. She later teamed up with Aleen Bailey, Tayna Lawrence, and Sherone Simpson to win the 4 x 100 m relay race.

In August 2005, Campbell won the silver medal in the 100 m at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics as well as another silver medal in the 4 x 100 m relay (together with Daniele Browning, Aleen Bailey and Sherone Simpson).

At the 2007 World Championships, Campbell won three medals with a gold in the 100 m, a silver in the 200 m (second to Felix) and a silver in the 4 x 100 m relay.

At the 2008 Jamaican Olympic trials, she finished fourth in the 100 m, thereby missing the qualifying requirement to automatically make the Jamaican Olympic roster for that event. She clocked 10.88 s in the final, which is the second fastest time ever for a fourth place finish. She however bounced back to take the 200 m final in a personal best of 21.94 s. Failing to qualify for the 100 m, she only competed in the 200 m and the 4 x 100 m relay at the Olympic Games. At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, Veronica Campbell-Brown carried the Jamaican flag during the Athletes' Parade. She successfully defended her Olympic 200 m title in a new personal best time of 21.74 s. She competed at the 4 x 100 m relay together with Shelly-Ann Fraser, Sheri-Ann Brooks and Aleen Bailey. In the first round heats, Jamaica placed first in front of Russia, Germany and China. The Jamaican teams' time of 42.24 s was the first time overall out of sixteen participating nations. With this result, Jamaica qualified for the final, replacing Brooks and Bailey with Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart. Jamaica did not finish the race due to a mistake in the baton exchange.

At the end of the 2008 season, Campbell-Brown was selected the top 200 m runner in the world as well as the fourth best in the 100 m (following three other Jamaicans) by Track and Field News. She also finished eighth overall in voting for the magazine's Woman of the Year.

She qualified for her third World Championships by winning the 200 m national title. She beat runners up Shelly Ann Fraser and Simone Facey with a time of 22.40 seconds in June 2009, although a toe injury had left her lacking full fitness. At the 2009 World Championships Campbell-Brown was fourth in the 100 m final behind teammates Fraser and Stewart. She then won her second World 200 m silver behind American Allyson Felix. She closed the season at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, recording her fastest of the year (10.89) to take second behind Carmelita Jeter, who became the second fastest ever with 10.64 seconds. Although she was beaten by Jeter, Campbell-Brown was the fourth fastest 100 m sprinter overall that season.

In 2011 Veronica Campbell-Brown won the Jamaican athletic trials in both the 100 & 200 m and was one of the favorites for both gold medals at the world championships in Daegu. At the championships she won the silver medal in the women's 100 m in 10.98 behind Jeter, who won in 10.90. She later went on to win her first 200 m world title in a timer of 22.22, beating out Jeter and Felix who were second and third respectively.

Personal life

In 2007, Campbell married Omar Brown, a fellow Jamaican sprinter and University of Arkansas alumnus. They currently live and train in Clermont, Florida. She was appointed as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in late 2009, and stated that she would use the role to promote gender equity in sport.

Achievements

Campbell-Brown's personal best of 10.76 s in the 100 m ranks her all-time top ten in the world (9th place) and fourth among Jamaican women. Her 200 m best (21.74 s) ranks her in the all-time top ten in the world. This time is the third best among Jamaican women. It is the fastest time of the 21st Century, and the fastest since Marion Jones's 21.62 s in Johannesburg 1998.