Nickel Ashmeade (born 7 April 1990) is a Jamaican sprinter who specialises in the 100 and 200 meters. Nickel Ashmeade ran the third leg for Jamaica's 4 × 100 m team at the 2013 World Championships in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

which won the gold medal. Nickel Ashmeade finished 5th at the

2013 World Championships in Athletics The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (Moscow 2013) () was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 200 ...

in the

100 m 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

and 4th in the 200 m.

Career

A St. Jago High School teammate of

Yohan Blake Yohan Blake (born 26 December 1989) is a Jamaican sprinter specialising in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprint races. He won gold at the 100 m at the 2011 World Athletics Championships as the youngest 100 m world champion ever, and a silver m ...

, Ashmeade first enjoyed success in the sprints as a junior athlete: at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships he beat compatriot

Dexter Lee Dexter Lee (born 18 January 1991) is a Jamaican sprinter who specialises in the 100 and 200 metres. He became the first athlete to win back-to-back titles at World Junior Championships in Athletics when he won the 100 metres in 2008 and 2010. ...

to the 100 m title, was runner-up to

Ramone McKenzie Ramone McKenzie (born 15 November 1990) is a Jamaican sprinter who specialises in the 100 and 200 metres. He turned professional on 2 November 2009, now being trained by American coach Lance Brauman. He is also a young entrepreneur who owns mul ...

over 200 m, and teamed up with the pair to bring

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

the 4×100 meter relay title. Another medal haul came for the young Jamaican at the 2007 World Youth Championships in Athletics, where he was second to Lee in the 100 m, ran a 200 m best of 20.76 seconds for the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

, and helped the national team to another bronze in the

sprint medley relay The sprint medley relay (SMR) is a track and field event in which teams of four athletes compete over sprinting distances as part of a relay race. Unlike most track relays, each member of the team runs a different distance. The sprint medley is rat ...

. He competed at the

Penn Relays The Penn Relays (also Penn Relays Carnival) is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States, hosted annually since April 21, 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. In 2012, there were ...

in 2008 and represented his school, St. Jago High School – an institution renowned for producing

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athletes. Ashmeade focused on the 200 m at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics and he took the silver medal in

the event ''The Event'' (stylized as THE EVƎNT) is an American television series containing elements of science fiction, action/adventure and political allegory. It was created by Nick Wauters and aired on NBC from September 20, 2010 to May 23, 2011. ...

, narrowly finishing behind France's Christophe Lemaitre. A second silver came in the 4×100 m relay and he departed from his usual oeuvre to help

to fourth place in the

4 × 400 m relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

. The regional

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

provided him the opportunity for further junior medals: he won the 200 m title and two relay

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 bee ...

s at the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

edition and almost repeated the feat in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, with the sole difference being a 4×400 m relay silver. His final international outing as a junior athlete came at the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships in

Port of Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...

and he won the 200 m gold in a personal best of 20.40 seconds before going on to take a relay bronze medal. He made the transition to the senior ranks at the

2009 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics The 2009 Central American and Caribbean Championships (Spanish: ''XXII Campeonato CAC Atletismo'') was the twenty second edition of the tournament and was held between 3 and 7 July in Havana, Cuba. Event summary The host country Cuba dominated the ...

, where he won the 200 m race ahead of

Rondel Sorrillo Rondel Kelvin Sorrillo (born 24 January 1986) is a Trinidad and Tobago sprinter, who specializes in the 200 meters. He was the first University of Kentucky athlete to win the men's 200 m title at the NCAA championships, winning it in 2010. Sorr ...

. After a quiet 2010, he made significant improvements at the start of the 2011 outdoor season. In May 2011, he completed his first 200 m in under 20 seconds in Kingston, running 19.96 seconds to surprise the more established

Wallace Spearmon Wallace Spearmon Jr. (born December 24, 1984, in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, USA) is a retired American Sprint (running), sprint Track and field, athlete, who specializes in the 200 metres, 200 meters. He is a two-time NCAA ...

and improve upon his previous best by almost half a second. Ashmeade made similar progress in the 100 m at the

Ponce Grand Prix The Ponce Grand Prix de Atletismo is a track and field competition held yearly in Ponce, Puerto Rico at the Francisco Montaner Stadium. The event started in 2007, after the successful hosting of the 2006 Ibero-American Championships.Robinson, ...

later that month, setting a meet record to beat

Justin Gatlin Justin Alexander Gatlin (born February 10, 1982) is a retired American sprinter who competed in the 60 meters, 100 meters, and 200 meters. He is the 2004 Olympic Champion in the 100 meters, the 2005 and 2017 World Champion in the 100 meters, the ...

, 2004 Olympic and 2005 World champion, with a time of 10.05 seconds (an improvement of 0.24 seconds). Ashmeade competed in the

, 200 m, and

4 × 100 m relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

at the 2013 World Championships. After finishing 5th in the

and narrowly coming 4th in the 200 m, Ashmeade was part of the Jamaican

team which won gold. Ashmeade represented

in the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. During his first

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, he finished fifth place in the semifinal rounds of the men's 100 m with a time of 10.05s and fourth in the 200 m semifinals with 20.31s. He earned his first Olympic medal as the third leg of the

team, anchored by

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt, , (; born 21 August 1986) is a retired Jamaican sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay. An eight- ...

, with a time of 37.27s. Ashmeade has won a total of five medals representing

at the

IAAF World Relays The World Athletics Relays, known as the ''IAAF World Relays'' until 2019, is an international biennial track and field sporting event held by World Athletics where teams from around the world compete in relay races, some of which are not part of ...

. The most recent being at the 2017 edition of the event in which he won a bronze medal in the 4 × 200 m relay. At the 2014 edition, Ashmeade won two gold medals in the

and the 4 × 200 m relay running the first and second leg respectively. At the 2015 edition Ashmeade won a gold and silver. The gold was won in the 4 × 200 m relay whilst running the first leg and the silver was won in the

running the third leg.

Personal bests

Achievements

References

External links

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A Focused Nikel Ashmeade Runs Into The Spotlight
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashmeade, Nickel 1990 births Living people Jamaican male sprinters People from Saint Ann Parish Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Jamaica Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Jamaica Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Jamaica World Athletics Championships medalists Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Jamaica Olympic gold medalists for Jamaica Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics World Athletics record holders (relay) Diamond League winners World Athletics Championships winners 20th-century Jamaican people 21st-century Jamaican people