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| Sheniqua Ferguson misses out on women’s 100m final |
Sheldon Longley
Guardian Sports Editor slongley@nasguard.com
Published: Aug 07, 2012
LONDON, England – Sheniqua Ferguson failed to make the final of the women’s 100 meters (m), but at the end of the day, she had advanced to the Olympic semi-finals, and to her, it was improvement over her Olympic debut in Beijing, China, four years ago. It was definitely something to be proud of. She just found herself competing with an elite group of girls on Saturday night at the Olympic Stadium. Ferguson improved her time from the first round heats, running 11.32 seconds in the semis, but it was only good enough for seventh in that race and 21st overall. Six out of the eight qualifiers for the final ran under 11 seconds, which was won by Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce for the second Olympiad in a row. She ran a stunning 10.75 seconds in the final, on Saturday night. “I felt like I had a better start than what I had in the first round but unfortunately I didn’t make it through,” said Ferguson. “Right now, I just think that it’s a lack of competing. I didn’t get to compete much this season and that might have been my downfall. Thankfully I got to finish the race without any injuries, so I thank God for that. I came here to represent my country and give it my all, and I feel like I did that.” Ferguson missed most of the year with a strained right hamstring. That same injury kept her out of the BTC/Scotiabank Olympic Trials in June. Still, she was one of many who skipped the trials to be ratified to the team, and is now halfway through her second consecutive Olympic journey. “I could have taken this injury and just prepared for next year, but I continued. I love to compete and I love to compete for my country so I came out here and gave it my all,” she said. “Hopefully the Bahamian people are proud of what I did. I made it to the semis and that’s an improvement from the last Olympics.” At her inaugural Olympics in Beijing, Ferguson made the quarter-finals of the women’s 200m, but failed to advance to the semis. This time she went a step further. Looking ahead on Saturday, there had been a possibility she would compete in the open 200m, but ended up passing on that event in order to focus on the 4x100m relay the rest of the way. She qualified ‘A’ standard for both short sprints. “There’s a possibility I’ll just concentrate on the 4x1 and give it the best that I could,” she said. “How we’re looking right now, I’m sure that we could make the final. Once in the final, anything can happen from there. We just have to work on that, do some more baton exchanges, and then go from there but I’m very optimistic.” As for the race itself, Ferguson appeared to get out of the blocks well but was simply out-classed by a tough field that included eventual gold medalist Fraser-Pryce, American three-time World Champion over 200m Allyson Felix, and bronze medalist from last year’s Daegu World Championships, Kelly-Ann Baptiste of Trinidad & Tobago. Ferguson said that she was a little disappointed, but is definitely looking forward to the future. “The experience has been good. I wanted to do better than I did at the last Olympics and I feel like I did that, but I’m a little disappointed because I at least wanted to end my individual season with a PR (personal best) or get to the final. I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes,” she said. Ferguson has a personal best time of 11.07 seconds this year. She did that early in the season, but after suffering her hamstring injury, she was never the same. |
