Campbell
fostered at the cradle of Jamaican sprinting
Garfield Samuels for the IAAF
21 October 2000 - Veronica Campbell, the reigning world youth 100 metres champion added two world junior titles to her coffers, in the process becoming the first female athlete to win the sprint double in the history of the world junior championships.
In the process, Campbell also bettered both championships records. The 18 year old Jamaican won the 100 metres in 11.12 seconds, four hundredths of a second faster than the national junior record she set at the Jamaica national championships on 21 July then completed a successful year by taking the 200 metres in 22.87 seconds, also a national junior record.
Campbell’s string of successes started at the national inter-secondary schools athletics championships in Kingston in early April, where she took the sprint double for girls under 20 in 11.62 and 23.49 seconds respectively and helped Vere Technical High School’s 4x100metres relay team to secure gold.
A week later in Grenada at the Carifta Games, she won the 200 metres in what was then a national junior record 23.05 seconds and finished second in 11.41 seconds to fellow Jamaican Nadine Palmer's 11.37 seconds in the 100m.
Campbell was outstanding at the Sydney Olympic Games where she ran the second leg on Jamaica’s 4x100 metres relay team which won silver behind the Bahamas.
A promising future awaits Veronica Campbell who has said that she intends to follow in the footsteps of 6-time Olympian Merlene Ottey who also attended Vere Technical in the late 70’s before going off on scholarship to the University of Nebraska in the USA.
Campbell was born on May 16, 1982 in Trelawny-north western Jamaica.
