Janieve Russell (born 14 November 1993) is a Jamaicantrack and field athlete who competes mainly in the400 metres hurdles and the400 metres sprint. She won an Olympic bronze medal in the4 × 400 m relay inTokyo 2021, where she also finished fourth in the 400 m hurdles final in a personal best of 53.08 secs. She is a four-timeCommonwealth Games gold medallist, winning the 400 m hurdles title in 2018 and 2022, and the4 × 400 m relay in 2014 and 2018. She has also won two relay silvers at theWorld Championships and a relay gold at theWorld Indoor Championships.
Russell was highly successful as a youth and junior level athlete. She was a nine-time gold medallist at theCARIFTA Games and a double gold medallist at the2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, winning the400 metres hurdles and the 4 × 400 m relay. She also won a relay medal at the2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics.
Born inManchester, Jamaica,[1] she attended Holmwood Technical High School inChristiana and competed in a variety of track and field events while there.[2] She was in the top three of both thehigh jump andlong jump at theJamaican High School Championships in 2008 and made her international debut shortly after, taking the under-17 long jump silver at the2008 CARIFTA Games.[3] She returned at the2009 CARIFTA Games and won that title, setting a personal best of 6.06 m (19 ft10+1⁄2 in) in the process. At the competition she was also the high jump bronze medallist, double gold medallist in the4 × 100 and4 × 400 metres relays, and set a games record in the300 metres hurdles as well.[4] She was among the contenders in the long jump at the2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics, but was twenty centimetres off her best in the final and finished in ninth place.[5]
Expanding her oeuvre, in 2010 Russell placed in the top three at the Jamaican High School in the100 metres hurdles as well as her long jump speciality. Taking incombined track and field events, she entered thepentathlon at the2010 CARIFTA Games and won by a margin of nearly 400 points. She still entered the long jump individually, and placed fourth.[6] The Jamaicanjunior championships saw her win a long jump/400 metres sprint double.[3] International junior medals followed at the2010 Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships, where the 16-year-old Russell took the 400 m silver medal win a personal best of 53.68 seconds and helped the Jamaican4 × 400 metres relay team to the gold medals.[7] She was selected for the same events at the2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics. 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.[8] She competed internationally in her fourth different event of the season, choosing the long jump for the2010 Youth Olympics and placing seventh in the competition.[9]
The2011 season saw Russell set personal bests in all the disciplines she competed in, bar the jumps. She focused on the400 metres hurdles at the start of the year, which culminated in a victory in the under-19 section of the2011 CARIFTA Games in a personal best of 57.71 seconds. She also won relay gold with the Jamaican team at the competition.[10] In May she ran track bests of 24.10 seconds for the200 metres and 53.55 seconds for the 400 m. In June she won her first senior title at theJamaican Athletics Championships, winning theheptathlon with a personal best score of 5361 points, including ajavelin throw best of 33.96 m (111 ft 5 in) and an800 metres best of 2:18.47 minutes to finish the competition.[3] The2011 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships was the biggest international event of her season and she finished with a heptathlon silver medal behind Brazil'sTamara de Sousa, setting bests in theshot put and100 metres hurdles along the way.[11]
Russell began to specialise more in the hurdles in 2012. She repeated her hurdles/relay double at the2012 CARIFTA Games and was also the long jump runner-up.[12] Her season focused on the2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics. 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.[13] She was dominant at the competition and won thegold medal 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 ofKaliese Spencer[14] She then anchored the Jamaican 4 × 400 m relay team to the silver medals behind the American team.[15]
Having finished her junior career, she gained anathletic scholarship to study at theUniversity of Technology, Jamaica – an institution with a prominent sports programme. She continued to focus on the 400 m hurdles,[16] setting a new best of 56.30 seconds in 2013, and began training in the event underStephen Francis at theMVP Track Club.[17] 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 inKingston in June.[18] 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.[19]
She was chosen to compete at the2014 Commonwealth Games (her first senior selection) and she came away with a bronze medal in the 400 m hurdles, finishing behind Spencer and host nation athleteEilidh Child.[20] 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.[1]
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing Jamaica | |||||
| 2009 | World Youth Championships | Brixen, Italy | 9th | Long jump | 5.86 m |
| 2010 | Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships (U-20) | Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic | 2nd | 400 m | 53.68 |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:34.41 | |||
| World Junior Championships | Moncton, New Brunswick,Canada | 21st (sf) | 400 m | 55.16 | |
| 3rd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:32.24 | |||
| Youth Olympics | Singapore | 7th | Long jump | 5.83 m | |
| 2011 | Pan American Junior Championships | Miramar, United States | 2nd | Heptathlon | 5352 pts |
| 2012 | World Junior Championships | Barcelona, Spain | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 56.62 |
| 2nd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:32.97 | |||
| 2014 | Commonwealth Games | Glasgow, United Kingdom | 3rd | 400 m hurdles | 55.64 |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:28.29 † | |||
| 2015 | World Championships | Beijing, China | 5th | 400 m hurdles | 54.65 |
| 2016 | Olympic Games | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 5th | 400 m hurdles | 54.15 |
| 2017 | World Relays | Nassau, Bahamas | 3rd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:28.49 |
| 2018 | World Indoor Championships | Birmingham, United Kingdom | 2nd (h) | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:32.011 |
| Commonwealth Games | Gold Coast, Australia | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 54.33 | |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:24.00 | |||
| NACAC Championships | Toronto, Canada | 2nd | 400 m hurdles | 53.81 | |
| 2019 | World Relays | Yokohama, Japan | 5th | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:28.30 |
| 2021 | Olympic Games | Tokyo, Japan | 4th | 400 m hurdles | 53.08 |
| 3rd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:21.24 | |||
| 2022 | World Indoor Championships | Belgrade, Serbia | 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:28.40 |
| World Championships | Eugene, United States | 14th (sf) | 400 m hurdles | 54.66 | |
| 2nd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:20.74 | |||
| NACAC Championships | Freeport, Bahamas | 2nd | 400 m hurdles | 54.87 | |
| 2nd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:26.32 | |||
| 2023 | World Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 7th | 400 m hurdles | 54.28 |
| 2nd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:20.88 | |||
| 2024 | Olympic Games | Paris, France | 12th (sf) | 400 m hurdles | 54.65 |
| 2025 | NACAC Championships | Freeport, Bahamas | 7th | 400 m hurdles | 56.58 |
1Disqualified in the final
World Indoor Champions in women's4 × 400 metres relay | |
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Commonwealth Games champions in women's400 metres hurdles | |
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Commonwealth Games champions in women's4 × 400 metres relay | |
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