Name |
Sherone Simpson |
Height |
5'4" |
Naionality |
Jamaica |
Date of Birth |
August 12, 1984 |
Place of Birth |
Manchester, Jamaica |
Famous for |
|
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.