Women find joy in breaking national record

DAEGU, South Korea:

Jamaica's women's 4x100m quartet is still revelling after striking silver and resetting the national record at the 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics yesterday.

However, they believe that with more baton practice, things could have been better.

The Jamaicans (Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Kerron Stewart, Sherone Simpson and Veronica Campbell-Brown) clocked 41.70, erasing the old mark of 41.73, set in 2004 at the Athens Olympic Games. The United States came out on top in 41.56, with Ukraine doing well for the bronze in 42.51.

Things didn't look too good for the Jamaicans in the semi-finals, which took place just over an hour prior to the final, as the baton exchanges between Fraser-Pryce and Stewart on the first handover and Stewart and Simpson were terrible. But the latter believes that the experience of the girls helped to correct the problems in the short time that was available.

"I think we did very well to break the national record, we really went out there and gave it our all and I just think that we need to come together more so that we can do more changes and next year we will definitely go faster," said Simpson.

"I'm happy that the problems that happened took place in the semi-final so that we could correct it in the final," she added. "We did pretty well, we got like an hour and a half in between but we are experienced and knew what adjustments to make."

Better prepared

Campbell-Brown added: "It is great that we were able to come out as a team and get the national record. Next time we'll come better prepared and we'll get more. This is a motivation for us to continue working hard."

Fraser-Pryce was thankful for the achievement and is looking forward to next year's Olympic Games, where she is expecting to once again challenge the Americans.

"We have to give God thanks for everything that we have accomplished and just look forward to 2012. We got a national record and I am really thankful to be a part of the team that did it. I'm grateful for my teammates and I think that with this team, we would definitely go far with more baton changes and we'll continue to give it our best shot," said Fraser-Pryce.

Stewart was a little disappointed with missing out on the gold medal, but she was also appreciative of what was accomplished.

"They say champions always want to win, but you never want to win at all cost. We went out there and executed a great race, I mean we got second, but we also got the national record so what more can we ask for?" Stewart said.

The Jamaicans were picking up their 11th women's 4x100m medal (two gold, five silver, four bronze).