Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce clocked the third-fastest women’s 100 meters in history to beat Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah at the Athletissima meeting on Thursday.
Fraser-Pryce surged clear of her Jamaican rival from the blocks and timed 10.60 seconds with Thompson-Herah 0.04 back. A cooling tailwind at 1.7 meters per second was within the legal limit.
The 34-year-old Fraser-Pryce took 0.03 off the personal best she set in Jamaica in June, nine years after winning her second Olympic title in the 100.
“It’s been a long season but for me I never give up, keep working hard and staying committed to the task,” she told Swiss broadcaster RTS in a post-race interview.
Both women have improved their times since Thompson-Herah retained her Olympic title in Tokyo in a blazing 10.61, where Fraser-Pryce took silver in 10.74.
On Saturday, Thompson-Herah took her personal best down to 10.54 at the Prefontaine meeting in Eugene, Oregon. That is second all-time to Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 33-year-old world record of 10.49.
Fraser-Pryce is running the fastest season of her career four years after giving birth to a son.
“I’m happy that I was able to still show up and show women that it’s definitely possible to have your career, start your family, and come back,” she said.
A packed stadium of about 12,000 spectators saw the first six runners in the 100 dip below 11 seconds. Olympic bronze medalist Shericka Jackson was again third in 10.92.
A half-hour later, the wind was up to 3.2 meters per second for the men’s 200. That meant Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek’s winning time of 19.65 will not count as his personal best.
Yulimar Rojas, the charismatic triple jumper, had a wind-assisted opening leap of 15.56 meters, just 11 centimeters short of her world record in Tokyo.
“I really think I can break my world record again in Zurich,” Rojas said of the Sept. 8-9 finals meet on the Diamond League circuit.
Several other prominent athletes struggled, though, in the first major post-Olympic meeting in Europe — held nine time zones away from Oregon.
Olympic pole vault champion Armand Duplantis placed fourth after failing to clear 5.82 meters, 20 centimeters below his gold-medal height. Christopher Nilsen, the American silver medalist, won at 5.82.
In the women’s 400 hurdles, Olympic silver medalist Dalilah Muhammad placed fourth as bronze medalist Femke Bol of the Netherlands won in 53.05.
Karsten Warholm, the men’s Olympic champion in 400 hurdles, switched to the 400 flat and was fourth behind American Wilbert London, who won in 45.17.
Warholm’s world-record time in Tokyo of 45.94 was less than a half-second slower than his 45.51 without hurdles Thursday.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen was another Norwegian gold medalist trying a different event. The 1,500 champion won a 3,000-meter race in 7:33.06.
Olympic champions winning Thursday included Ryan Crouser in men’s shot put, with a Lausanne meeting record of 22.81 meters, and Mariya Lasitskene clearing 1.98 meters in the women’s high jump.
The Diamond League circuit moves on to Paris on Saturday.
AP
