‘Closed mouths don’t get fed’ - Ackera Nugent fires back at critics as she puts rivals Masai Russell & Co on notice

Jamaican hurdler Ackera Nugent is blocking out the noise from her critics as she bids to answer them back with great performances on track against her rivals such as Masai Russell.

Jamaican hurdler Ackera Nugent has hit out at her critics while promising to answer them back with impressive performances on the track soon.

Nugent went into the Paris Olympics with high hopes but despite reaching the final, she clipped her hurdles and failed to finish her race, dashing any hopes of a medal for Jamaica in an event won by American Masai Russell.

The 22-year-old would receive a lot of criticism from fans on social media over her performance but she later improved to claim wins at the Silesia and Rome Diamond League, giving her belief that what happened in Paris was just a blip.

Nugent may still be young but she has already developed a thick skin, shrugging off the criticism as he told off those who hit out at her during a recent interview with American sprint legend Michael Johnson.

“I have room for improvement. I have room for growth. And allowing social media and people getting to you in certain ways, it really doesn’t matter because we as athletes go through certain stuff that people don’t know about so allowing the noise on the outside to affect you, I don’t got time for that,” she said as per the Jamaican Observer.

“Whatever [social] media says, that’s their opinion because they’re fans; they don’t know as much about the sport as us the athletes so you can’t allow that to pressure you. When people are like, ‘She did all of that right now and she didn’t medal at the Olympics,’ I’m just like, ‘It’s just a medal.’ I have four more years, I have so many more years to get a medal — and at the end of the day a medal doesn’t define how great of an athlete you are.”

Nugent is among the athletes who have already signed up for Johnson’s Grand Slam Track, a new track event set to take place in 2025 across four legs in Kingston, Miami, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, with winners of each discipline set to pocket $100,000 per leg.

The hurdler will be running her 100m hurdles specialty as well as the 100m flat and she is excited by the prospect as she feels it could be the start of her journey into another discipline.

“I really do love the 100m but my coach doesn’t let me train for it. I don’t know why, but I’ve always liked running the 100m. Having this meet is good for me because it’s a day running the 100m then the next day running the hurdles. I think it will allow me to trust my speed a little more, and it can probably [help] me in hurdles,” she added.

At Grand Slam Track, Nugent will face off with familiar foes in Russell and former Olympics champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn from Puerto Rico who beat her at the Paris Olympics but she is ready to get her revenge.

“This isn’t college or high school anymore; it’s actually a shift, and people are actually now seeing me getting the opportunity to be a part of a great meet like this,” she said.

“I know it’s the best of the best so it’s basically each time I know that I step out there to do both events, I’ve just got to be on my A-game.

“I’m looking at it like I’m the target so it’s just like everybody’s coming here to win, everybody has money on the line, and I’m like, ‘Closed mouths don’t get fed,’ so I got to open up and keep it pushing.”