| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women'sathletics | ||
Representing Jamaica | ||
| Pan American Games | ||
 | 1979 San Juan | 4×100 m relay |
| Commonwealth Games | ||
 | 1982 Brisbane | 4×100 m relay |
| World Championships | ||
| 1983 Helsinki | 4×100 m relay |
Leleith Hodges (born 22 June 1953) is aJamaican formertrack and fieldsprinter who competed mainly in the100 metres. She was one of Jamaica's most prominent female runners of the 1970s.
She appeared three times at theSummer Olympics (1972, 1976, 1980) and three times at theCommonwealth Games (1974, 1978, 1982). Her highest honours came with the women's4×100 m relay team, with which was a silver medallist at the1979 Pan American Games and a bronze medallist at both the1982 Commonwealth Games and1983 World Championships in Athletics.
Hodges won numerous at regional level at theCentral American and Caribbean Championships andCentral American and Caribbean Games, including back-to-back victories in the individual100 metres and relay at the championships in 1979 and 1981.
She was the 100 m champion at theUSA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1978 – a feat for which she was chosen as theJamaican Sportswoman of the Year. Her 100 m personal best of 11.14 seconds (a formerJamaican record) was set at that meet. She ran collegiately in the United States forTexas Woman's University and won the 100 m at theAssociation for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championships.
Born inIslington in Jamaica'sSaint Mary Parish,[1] she attended nearbySt Mary High School.[2] While there she took up running and became the 100 m champion at theJamaican Girls High School Championships in 1970.[3]
In her first international championship, she won the 100 m junior title at the newly inaugurated1972 CARIFTA Games.[4] At the age of nineteen she was chosen to represent Jamaica in the4×100 metres relay at the1972 Munich Olympics. The team were disqualified in the first round, however.[1]
Hodges took to competing in sprinting full-time and was rewarded with her first senior international medal – a 100 m bronze – at the1974 Central American and Caribbean Games, finishing behind Cuban duoCarmen Valdés andSilvia Chivás.[5] Hodges also ran at theBritish Commonwealth Games that year, but failed to make it to the 100 m final.[6] Another 100 m bronze followed at theCentral American and Caribbean Championships in 1975 and she also won gold with the Jamaican relay team.[7] After a run at the1979 Pan American Games, where she was seventh in the 100 m, she returned to the Olympic stage at the1976 Montreal Games. She was only a quarter-finalist individually, but managed sixth place in the relay on the lead off leg alongsideRose Allwood,Carol Cummings andJacqueline Pusey.[1]
Hodges had her best individual finish yet at the1977 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics, taking silver behind Cuba's Chivás.[7] The pair repeated that finish at theCentral American and Caribbean Games the following year, and Hodges also won a second silver leading off the Jamaican relay team ofDorothy Scott, Pusey, andMaureen Gottschalk.[8] She was seventh in the 100 m final at the1978 Commonwealth Games.[6]
Hodges became dissatisfied with the limited opportunities to compete and in January 1978, after a conversation with fellow Jamaican OlympianAudrey Reid, she decided to enrol in aphysical education major atTexas Woman's University, where Reid had already attended. She was dominant that year, beatingEvelyn Ashford at theAssociation for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championships in a 100 m meet record of 11.18 seconds, then bestingBrenda Morehead at theUSA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.[3] In the semi-finals of that competition she set a lifetime best andJamaican record of 11.14 seconds for the 100 m.[2] This placed her joint second on the global rankings for the event that year, only behind European championMarlies Göhr.[9] In recognition of her achievements that year she was honoured as theJamaican Sportswoman of the Year.[10]
Returning to international competition in 1979, she achieved a 100 m individual and relay double at theCentral American and Caribbean Championships. A relay silver medal came at thePan American Games, where she was again the starter for the Jamaican team, which included Allwood,Carmetta Drummond, andMerlene Ottey. Hodges ranked fifth individually, where American rivals Ashford and Morehead took the top two spots.[11]
She had mixed fortunes in 1980 as she endured hamstring pain. She won the60 metres at the AIAW indoor meet, but failed to defend her AIAW title, coming fifth, and dropped out of the relay due to her injury.[3] Her third and final Olympic appearance came at the age of 27 at the1980 Moscow Olympics, where she ran in the heats of the 100 m and came sixth in the relay with Pusey, Allwood, and Ottey (setting a Jamaican record of 43.19 seconds).[1] While there Hodges commented on the lack of children in the city, and posited that the Soviet's did not want their children engaging with Westerners.[12] Hodges was disappointed with the relay team's Olympic result, as a poor baton change between Allwood and Ottey led to a slower time. Hodges blamed Ottey, who had run off too early and performed poorly in practice, saying "She never focused on the relays. She was just so obsessed with her own race."[13]
Hodges last season with coachBert Lyle'sTexas Woman's Pioneers team was in 1981. She attempted to recapture her AIAW title but was beaten to the 100 m championship by fellow Jamaica Merlene Ottey, 11.20 to 11.24 seconds. At the 1981Texas Relays she defeated AmericanJeanette Bolden to take the 100 m title there, in spite of tumbling heavily at the start of the race.[14] Her season's best time of 11.21 seconds that year marked her second highest career ranking at tenth place globally.[11] She defended two gold medals at the1981 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics, beating two championship records in the process with 11.38 seconds in the 100 m and 44.62 seconds in the 4×100 m relay.[7]
By 1982, Hodges role as leading Jamaican women's sprinter had been overtaken by Merlene Ottey. At the1982 Commonwealth Games and1983 World Championships in Athletics Hodges failed to make the finals, while Ottey won sprint medals. The paired teamed up, however, to raise the Jamaican relay team to new heights.[citation needed]
Hodges handed off the relay baton to Ottey at the Commonwealth Games and the team (also featuringCathy Rattray-Williams andGrace Jackson) were the bronze medallists behind England and Canada – Jamaica's first ever women's medal in that event at the games.[6][15] In her last major international Hodges led off the Jamaican women's 4×100 m relay team at the World Championships. With Ottey on the anchor leg, and Pusey andJuliet Cuthbert on the middle legs, the team finished in a new time of 42.73 – just two hundredths behind the British women who were runners-up. This marked the first medal that began a long period of World Championships podium finishes for the Jamaican women's team.[16][17] She had won the 100 m title at theJamaican Athletics Championships that year.[18]
Hodges aimed to make the team forJamaica at the 1984 Summer Olympics, but after falling pregnant she missed the competition and did not compete internationally again.[13] She had three children, Randy, Tanya and Natasha, with her husband Daniel. After her retirement from athletics, she was inducted into the Texas Woman's University Hall of Fame in 1999.[3]
