Jamaica’s World and Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce zoomed to the fastest time in the world this year of 10.81secs (1.7m/s) in winning the women’s 100m Diamond League race at the 2015 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon Saturday. Running only her second 100m race since the season began, the 28-yr-old sprint queen left the blocks with her bullet start and just managed hold off Ivorian Murielle Ahoure, who clocked a new Ivory Coast national record with the same time as Fraser-Pryce’s, making both women joint world leaders. A margin of 2,000th of a second separated the two women.
Finishing in third place was US Tori Bowie (10.82 season best (SB), followed by Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare (10.87 SB), Carmelita Jeter of the US (11.02 SB), Trinidad and Tobago’s (T&T) Kelly-Ann Baptiste (11.08), USA’s Tianna Bartoletta (10.09 SB), and T&T’s Michelle-Lee Ahye (11.90), who pulled up towards the end of the race and fell to the track in pain.
Until Saturday’s race, the leading time in the women’s 100m was 10.92 held by Fraser Pryce’s compatriot and training partner Elaine Thompson and Jenna Prandini of the USA. The time was also personal bests (PB) for Thompson, a new Jamaican star who took the 2015 Jamaica collegiate title for the University of Technology (UTech) and Prandini, a student of the University of Oregon.
But while Fraser-Pryce lowered the world leading time by both women, Thompson took down her PB in the women’s Invitational 100m to a scorching 10.84 (1.5m/s) for second behind the American 2013 national title holder and World Championships fourth-place finisher, English Gardner, who also lowered her PB from 10.85 to 10.84. Thompson, who was slow out of the blocks relatively to her usual starts, kicked into high gear at 50 meters to draw level with Gardner before the finish line. The winner was decided on a minuscule lean in the photo finish as there was only 2,000th of a second between them as well.
Completing the field were Brazil’s Rosangela Santos (11.04 PB), Jeneba Tarmoh of the US (11.06 SB), Kimberlyn Duncan f the US (11.22, Barbera Pierre of the US (11.24), Ana Lemos of Brazil (11.30), and Kaylin Whitney of the US (11.49 SB). Complete Results