RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, CMC – Celebrated Jamaican sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown has described her first-round exit from the Women’s 200 metres at the Rio Olympic Games on Monday as “a terrible execution”. The veteran Jamaican sprinter crashed out of the event after mustering third spot in the final heat of the preliminaries, won by Bahrain’s Edidiong Ofonime Odiong. The two-time Olympic 200m champion finished outside a qualifying spot after a time of 22.97, her worst clocking since June 2015.
“I’ve been through worse in my life, so this is not such a crazy hurdle to get over. It’s a position I’ve never been in before, and sometimes you don’t get your desires, but I’ve learnt to move on from things I can’t understand or when I don’t get my desire,” said Campbell-Brown, affectionately referred to as VCB. “I’ve learnt to give thanks in all things, and so I have to move on and look forward to what is next. I’m not going to get into what happened because I can’t change it, I just have to move on”.
Campbell-Brown, who first competed at the Olympics in 2000 in Sydney, Australia, is the female captain of the Jamaica team in RIO.
VCB, who has represented Jamaica at the highest level for 16 years, has stressed that she is putting her elimination behind her and anticipating the rest of the season after her final event, the 4x100m relay.
“So I’m going to go out there with my teammates and do our best and then look forward to the rest of the season,” said VCB.
“It was a terrible execution, that’s all I can say at this time, to be honest”. The final of the women’s 200m is scheduled for tonight following yesterday’s semi-finals.
