Janieve Russell (born 14 November 1993) is a Jamaican

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who competes mainly in the

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Summer Olympics, Olympic Sport of athletics, athletics programme since 1900 Summer Olympics, 1900 for men and since 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 for women. On a ...

and the

400 metres sprint The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is on ...

. She won an Olympic bronze medal in the relay in Tokyo 2021, where she also finished fourth in the 400 m hurdles final in a personal best of 53.08 secs. She is a four-time

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

gold medallist, winning the 400 m hurdles title in 2018 and 2022, and the relay in 2014 and 2018. She has also won two relay silvers at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

and a relay gold at the World Indoor Championships. Russell was highly successful as a youth and junior level athlete. She was a nine-time gold medallist at the

CARIFTA Games The CARIFTA Games is an annual athletics competition founded by the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). The games were first held in 1972 and consist of track and field events including sprint races, hurdles, middle distance track ev ...

and a double gold medallist at the

2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2012 World Athletics U20 Championships, World Junior Championships in Athletics was an international Sport of athletics, athletics competition for athletes qualifying as Junior (athletics), juniors (born 1993 or later) which was held at the E ...

, winning the

and the 4 × 400 m relay. She also won a relay medal at the

2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to s ...

Career

Early life and career

Born in

Manchester, Jamaica The Parish of Manchester () is a parish located in west-central Jamaica, in the county of Middlesex. Its capital, Mandeville, is a major business centre. Its St. Paul of the Cross Pro-Cathedral is the episcopal see of the Latin Catholic Dio ...

,. Glasgow2014. Retrieved on 12 August 2014. she attended Holmwood Technical High School in Christiana and competed in a variety of track and field events while there. She was in the top three of both the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

and

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

at the Jamaican High School Championships in 2008 and made her international debut shortly after, taking the under-17 long jump silver at the

2008 CARIFTA Games The 37th CARIFTA Games was held in the Bird Rock Athletic Stadium in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, on March 21–24, 2008. IAAF president Lamine Diack was visiting the games emphasizing the event's importance and high value. Detailed r ...

.Janieve Russell
Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 12 August 2014. She returned at the

2009 CARIFTA Games The 38th CARIFTA Games was held in the George Odlum National Stadium in Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia, on April 10–13, 2009. Detailed reports on the results were given. Participation (unofficial) Detailed result lists can be found on t ...

and won that title, setting a personal best of in the process. At the competition she was also the high jump bronze medallist, double gold medallist in the

4 × 100 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. Evolution of the Hi ...

and

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track and field, track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap, totaling 1600 meters. It is traditionally the final event of ...

s, and set a games record in the

300 metres hurdles The 300 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. It is a standard event under the NFHS in American high school competition and a championship level event in Masters athletics. The two iterations of the event vary somewhat. Common to a ...

as well. She was among the contenders in the long jump at the

2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics The 2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics is the sixth edition of the IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics. They were held at Brixen-Bressanone Sport Arena in Bressanone, Italy from 8–12 July 2009. Athletes had to be aged 16 or ...

, but was twenty centimetres off her best in the final and finished in ninth place. Expanding her oeuvre, in 2010 Russell placed in the top three at the Jamaican High School in the

100 metres hurdles The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten hurdles of a height of are placed along a straight course of . The first hurdle is ...

as well as her long jump speciality. Taking in

combined track and field events Combined track and field events are competitions in which athletes participate in a number of track and field events, earning points for their performance in each event, which adds to a total points score. Outdoors, the most common combined events ...

, she entered the

pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek language, Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) (). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the Anci ...

at the

2010 CARIFTA Games The 39th CARIFTA Games was held in the Truman Bodden Sports Complex in George Town, Cayman Islands, on April 3–5, 2010. A detailed report on the results was given. Records In total, 13 new games records were set. ;Key: Austin Sealy Awar ...

and won by a margin of nearly 400 points. She still entered the long jump individually, and placed fourth. The Jamaican

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

championships saw her win a long jump/

double. International junior medals followed at the

2010 Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships The 18th Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships were held in the Estadio Olímpico Félix Sánchez in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, between 2–4 July 2011, and organized by the Federación Dominicana de Asociaciones de Atleti ...

, where the 16-year-old Russell took the 400 m silver medal win a personal best of 53.68 seconds and helped the Jamaican

team to the gold medals. She was selected for the same events at the

. Although she was a little slower in the 400 m individual event, being eliminated in the semi-finals, she won a medal with the Jamaican team, which ran its fastest time of the year (3:32.24 minutes) to claim the bronze medals. She competed internationally in her fourth different event of the season, choosing the long jump for the

2010 Youth Olympics The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, ) officially known as the I Summer Youth Olympic Games, and commonly known as Singapore 2010, were the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an Olympic Games-based event for young athletes. Held ...

and placing seventh in the competition. The 2011 season saw Russell set personal bests in all the disciplines she competed in, bar the jumps. She focused on the

at the start of the year, which culminated in a victory in the under-19 section of the 2011 CARIFTA Games in a personal best of 57.71 seconds. She also won relay gold with the Jamaican team at the competition. In May she ran track bests of 24.10 seconds for the

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slight ...

and 53.55 seconds for the 400 m. In June she won her first senior title at the

Jamaican Athletics Championships The Jamaican Athletics Championships is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association, which serves as the national championship for the sport in Jamaica.heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek ἑπτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hep ...

with a personal best score of 5361 points, including a

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

best of and an

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

best of 2:18.47 minutes to finish the competition. The

2011 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships The 16th Pan American Junior Championships were held in Miramar, Florida, United States, at the Ansin Sports Complex on July 22 to 24, 2011.

was the biggest international event of her season and she finished with a heptathlon silver medal behind Brazil's Tamara de Sousa, setting bests in the

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

and

along the way.

World Junior champion

Russell began to specialise more in the hurdles in 2012. She repeated her hurdles/relay double at the

2012 CARIFTA Games The 2012 CARIFTA Games were held in the Bermuda National Stadium in Hamilton, Bermuda between April 6—9, 2012, the fourth time in which the event was held in Bermuda. The other years being 1975, 1980, 2004. A detailed analysis of the results an ...

and was also the long jump runner-up. Her season focused on the

. She entered as the world leader in the 400 m hurdles through her new best of 57.04 seconds at the national championships in June. She was dominant at the competition and won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

by a margin of over a second, setting a new best time of 56.62 seconds. This made her the second Jamaican woman to win the title, following in the footsteps of Kaliese Spencer She then anchored the Jamaican 4 × 400 m relay team to the silver medals behind the American team.

Senior career

Having finished her junior career, she gained an

athletic scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private school, private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on their ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the U ...

to study at the

University of Technology, Jamaica The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Ja.), formerly the College of Arts, Science and Technology, is a public university in Jamaica. History The university was founded as the Jamaica Institute of Technology in 1958. The following y ...

– an institution with a prominent sports programme. She continued to focus on the 400 m hurdles, setting a new best of 56.30 seconds in 2013, and began training in the event under Stephen Francis at the MVP Track Club. She markedly improved her performances in 2014. She knocked over a second and a half off her 400 m sprint best, running a time of 51.49 seconds in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

in June. At the Jamaican Championships she was runner-up i the 400 m hurdles to the Kaliese Spencer, the top Jamaican and training partner. Russell's time of 54.75 seconds was almost a second improvement on her previous best. She was chosen to compete at the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

(her first senior selection) and she came away with a bronze medal in the 400 m hurdles, finishing behind Spencer and host nation athlete Eilidh Child.Commonwealth Games round-up: Amos stuns Rudisha to take gold in 800m final
Talk Sport (31 July 2014). Retrieved on 2014-08-12. She ran in the heats of the 4 × 400 m relay and though she was replaced in the final, the team won the gold medals.

Personal bests

– 53.08 sec (2021) *

– 23.43 sec (2018) *

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...

– 50.98 sec (2023) *

– 2:11.5h min (2015) *

– 13.80 sec (2012) *

– 41.30 sec (2009) *

High jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

– (2009) *

Long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

– (2010) *

Shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

– (2011) *

Javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

– (2011) *

Pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek language, Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) (). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the Anci ...

– 3825 points (2010) *

Heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek ἑπτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hep ...

– 5361 points (2011)

International competition record

* † = Competed in the heats of the relay only. ¹Disqualified in the final ;National titles *Heptathlon: 2010 *400 meter hurdles: 2015

References

External links