CARMELITA JETER of the United States beat Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown into silver in the women's 100 metres final at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea today.
Jeter in 10.90 seconds saw off a strong finish from Campbell-Brown in 10.97 and defending champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica was beaten into fourth place in 10.99, behind Kelly-Ann Baptiste of Trinidad in 10.98.
Kerron Stewart, Jamaica's third finalist, finished sixth in 11.15.
The headwind was -1.4 m/s.
Moments after crossing the finish line Carmelita Jeter stared at the Daegu Stadium scoreboard screen in disbelief. Having previously finished third in two consecutive World Championship 100m finals she had finally achieved the ultimate prize and as the news sunk in she was overwhelmed.
The 31 year old from Gardena, California, kneeled on the track and cried tears of joy. The obligatory victory lap - complete with an American flag draped across her shoulders - followed while the crowd voiced their approval.
In her wake she had left the pair of Jamaican sprinters Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce who led from the start and very nearly stole the race, and the hard charging veteran Veronica Campbell-Brown beaten. Fraser-Pryce would be edged out of the medals by Kelly-Anne Baptiste of Trinidad & Tobago. Indeed it was one of the more exciting dashes in some time.
“I didn’t know I had it until the camera was on me because it was so close,” Jeter said “Then, when they put it on me, I said ‘oh, my gosh, I did it. I have been dreaming of this since 2009 when I got the bronze in Berlin.”
