White Hall Celebrates Shericka Williams’ Performance

The community of White Hall in St. Elizabeth, home town of Shericka Williams, came out to celebrate yesterday (August 19), after the athlete captured the silver medal in the women’s 400 metres race, in a thrilling performance at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
Her father, Errol Williams, told reporters that it was the joy of his life to see his daughter winning a medal in an international competition, “I just feel good and the entire community feels the same way that am feeling. I did my best for her, from age nine we knew that she was going to do well in track and field, her mother is in America, and she is glad to see this day. My last daughter Sherene, who is seven has started to run and I am going to do my best for her,” Mr. Williams said.
For Shericka’s grandmother, Kathleen Clarke, it was a day that was hoped and prayed for, “We are far away from town, and people don’t hear from us often, and when our girl from this small community can go to China and win a medal, is something that we had hoped and prayed for for a long time. Somebody from here had to do something that is seen by the entire world, and the fact that it is all over the world, the young people here will be inspired to do positive things,” Mrs. Clarke asserted.
“During my young days I was an athlete but I never got too far in it, but I always knew that the dasheen and cassava weh we eat would pay off one day. This is a day that nobody in the entire parish will forget,” Shericka’s cousin, Yvonne Comrie said.