April 24, 2024
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce runs world-leading 100m time, her record sixth race under 10.7 seconds this season

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce runs world-leading 100m time, her record sixth race under 10.7 seconds this season

The five-time 100m world champion, who raced to victory by a full meter, has now become the first woman to break 10.7 six times in one season.

Her compatriot Shericka Jackson set a personal best of 10.71 as she tried to keep pace with Fraser-Pryce, finishing second, while Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josée Ta Lou was third in an African record of 10.72.

“To be able to run 10.6 consistently means a lot to me,” Fraser-Pryce said.

“It’s remarkable. It is very hard to keep the speed on this high level. I’m in my late thirties and I think I feel like I have more to give,” the 35-year-old added.

In 2017, Fraser-Pryce had an emergency C-section when she had her son Zyon, subsequently taking two years away from the track to rehabilitate and focus on motherhood.

In the face of fears she would never reach the summit of the sport again, the new mother only improved year on year, bagging a record fifth 100m title at the World Championships in July.

“I look forward to doing my personal best for the rest of the season,” she added.

Florence Griffith-Joyner still holds the women’s 100m record of 10.49 seconds from 1988, ahead of Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah and Fraser-Pryce on the all-time list.

Elsewhere, Olympic and world champion Faith Kipyegon broke the Kenyan record, the meet record and her personal best in the 1500m, but narrowly missed out on Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba’s 2015 world record of 3:50.07.

“I have been chasing the time for quite some time but I am happy with the personal best,” Kipyegon, who returned to the sport in 2019 after the birth of her first child, said.

“I knew this was the best place to get the world record so I am disappointed I lost it in the last meters.”

Ben Church contributed reporting.

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