Leleith Hodges (born 22 June 1953) is a Jamaican former track and fieldsprinter who competed mainly in the 100 metres. She was one of Jamaica's most prominent female runners of the 1970s.
In her first international championship, she won the 100 m junior title at the newly inaugurated 1972 CARIFTA Games.[4] At the age of nineteen she was chosen to represent Jamaica in the 4×100 metres relay at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The team were disqualified in the first round, however.[1]
Returning to international competition in 1979, she achieved a 100 m individual and relay double at the Central American and Caribbean Championships. A relay silver medal came at the Pan American Games, where she was again the starter for the Jamaican team, which included Allwood, Carmetta Drummond, and Merlene 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 the 60 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 the 1980 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 coach Bert Lyle's Texas 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 1981 Texas Relays she defeated American Jeanette 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 the 1981 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]
Late career and relay medals
By 1982, Hodges role as leading Jamaican women's sprinter had been overtaken by Merlene Ottey. At the 1982 Commonwealth Games and 1983 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 featuring Cathy Rattray-Williams and Grace 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 and Juliet 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 the Jamaican Athletics Championships that year.[18]
Hodges aimed to make the team for Jamaica 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]
