Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson are set to clash in Lausanne, August 26.
Could Shely-Ann Fraser Pryce's meet record of 10.60 be on borrowed time when three of the four fastest women in the world this year line up for the 100m at the Lausanne Diamond League meeting on August 26?
Newly minted five-time world 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who has run under 10.70, a record-extending six times this season, including a world-leading 10.62 in Monaco on Wednesday, has been confirmed for the meet.
Mommy Rocket is the first woman to run under 10.70, a record six times in the same season and has eight times under 10.70 overall. In her last six finals, the 35-year-old Jamaican has run 10.67 (Nairobi), 10.67 (Paris), 10.67 (Oregon), 10.66 (Silesia), 10.67 (Hungary) and 10.62 (Monaco).
With the prospect of a two-week break from competition in which she is expected to get take some well-needed rest after running 10.6 three times in a week, Fraser-Pryce will be aiming to extend that record even further to seven when she lines up in Switzerland, where she will face compatriot Shericka Jackson, who ran a lifetime best of 10.71 in Monaco.
Jackson, the 200m world champion and the fastest woman alive over the distance, has said she has not run her best 100m so far this season and will be looking to improve on that time that saw her finish second to Fraser-Pryce.
Also confirmed for the blue-riband clash is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, the fastest woman alive courtesy of the blistering 10.54 she ran in Oregon in August 2021 after establishing a new Olympic record of 10.61 while winning gold in Tokyo two weeks earlier.
Admittedly, the double-double Olympic champion has not been at her best this season but she enters the meet coming off a confidence-boosting sprint double at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, where she ran 10.95 to win the 100m title and a season-best 22.02 to claim the 200m crown.
The 30-year-old Thompson-Herah ran 10.79 in Oregon in May, which made her the third fastest woman in the world this year until last Wednesday when Marie Jose Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast eclipsed that time when she was third in Monaco in a lifetime best of 10.72, a time that makes her the fastest African woman in history.
Fraser-Pryce, Jackson and Thompson-Herah swept the medals at the Tokyo Olympics and again at the World Championships in Oregon in July.
Olympic champion Hansle Parchment gets another crack at two-time world champion Grant Holloway in the 110m hurdles. In Monaco, Holloway ran a season-best to defeat Parchment, who was third in a season-best 13.08.
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With her final leap of 6.88m, Jamaica's Ackelia Smith wins long jump gold for Texas at NCAA Outdoor championships
Ackelia Smith fouled her first two jumps and was in danger of not advancing to the finals but she then found her footing to advance to the final round. There, with her final jump of the competition, she won gold on day two of the 2023 NCAA Division 1 Track and Field Championships in Austin, Texas.
Smith, a sophomore at the University of Texas, uncorked a leap of 6.88m to take the lead late from Alyssa Jones of Stanford, who had earlier produced a lifetime best of 6.86m.
Jones fouled her final jump and thus had to settle for second place.
Jasmine Moore of Florida took the bronze with 6.66m.
Smith’s victory came a day after fellow Jamaican Carey McLeod representing the University of Arkansas won the men’s long jump with a leap of 8.26m with Wayne Pinnock, his college teammate and fellow Jamaican, finishing second with 8.15m.
A third Jamaican, Jordan Turner of the University of Kentucky (8.13m) was third.
The final of the 100m barn burner as medal favourites Ackera Nugent, Alia Armstrong and Masai Russell all advanced to the finals. Razorback Nugent won her heat in 12.55, the second fastest time of the finalists. LSU’s Armstrong was only 0.01 faster having won her heat in 12.54.
Russell won her heat in 12.76.
Demisha Roswell, the 2022 Big 12 champion, failed to advance with her time of 12.99, the 11th fastest time of the semi-finals.
Having dominated the sprints all season, it was no surprise when Texas Longhorn senior Julien Alfred advanced to the final of both the 100m and 200m on Saturday.
The St Lucian led a Texas 1-2-3-4 in the first of three semi-final heats winning in 10.99 with Kevona Davis finishing second in 11.04. Davis’ time was the third-fastest heading into the final as Texas Tech’s Rosemary Chukwuma, the last woman to beat Alfred, ran 11.01 to advance.
An hour later, Alfred won her 200m semi-final heat in 22.33, the same time as Davis, who also won the first of the three semi-finals. Alfred (22.321), however, was the fastest having run 0.007 faster than Davis (22.328), who has been rounding into form throughout the season.
The pair were running on tired legs after the 100m semis and a blistering 4x100m relay heat that Texas won in 41.55, a new meet, facility and championship record.
Former Vere Technical runner, Nickisha Pryce, a junior at Arkansas, ran a lifetime best of 50.31 to advance to the final of the 400m. Only, the two gold medal favorites Britton Wilson also of Arkansas, who ran a new meet and facility record of 49.36 and Texas’ Rhasidat Adekele, who won her heat in 49.86 were faster.
JC and Cayman sprinter Jaiden Reid commits to LSU
Caymanian sprinter Jaiden Reid has decided to compete for the Louisiana State University (LSU) Tigers next season, the school announced on social media on Wednesday.
The 18-year-old had an excellent 2023 season competing for Jamaica College and the Cayman Islands.
He ran a personal best and Caymanian junior record 10.24 in the Class 1 Boys 100m semis at the ISSA Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Championships in March. He then took bronze in the final with 10.26. A week later, Reid also reached the Under-20 Boys 100m final at the 50th Carifta Games in Nassau, running 10.63 for sixth.
Reid has a 200m personal best of 20.91 done at the Corporate Area Development Meet at the national Stadium in Kingston last year. He competed in the event at the World Under-20 Championships in Cali, Colombia that same year, running 21.53 for sixth in his heat.
He was also a member of the Jamaica College quartet that produced 40.97 to win the Championship of America 4x100m at the Penn Relays this year.
Arkansas' McLeod, Pinnock go 1-2 in NCAA Div. 1 long jump final, Kentucky's Turner wins bronze
Carey McLeod was crowned 2023 long jump champion as the 2023 NCAA Division 1 National Outdoor Track and Field Championships got underway in Austin, Texas on Wednesday.
McLeod led a University of Arkansas 1-2 finish as Wayne Pinnock won the silver medal while Jordan Turner of the University of Kentucky made it a Jamaican 1-2-3 when he won bronze.
From a totally Jamaican perspective it was a Kingston College 1-2 with Calabar High third.
McLeod, the 2023 NCAA Indoor champion achieved the winning mark of 8.26m in the opening round equalling the facility record set by Steffin McCarter of Texas in 2021. Pinnock, the 2022 champion, followed leapt out to 8.15m for silver with Turner only two centimetres behind with 8.13m.
McLeod is the sixth Razorback to win a NCAA Outdoor long jump while Pinnock won the program’s sixth silver medal.
Meanwhile, Arkansas’ Phillip Lemonious was the fastest through to the finals of the 110m hurdles with a personal best 13.28. Fellow Jamaican Giano Roberts, representing Clemson University was also among the automatic qualifiers when he finished second in semi-final three with a personal best of 13.35.
Rasheem Brown of the Cayman Islands, a senior at the University of Tennessee also ran a personal best of 13.53 to advance to the finals that will be run on Friday.
It wasn’t all good news for Caribbean athletes however as Clemson’s Tarees Rhoden did not finish his 800m semi-final after leading at the end of the opening lap while Navasky Anderson struggled to a third place finish in his semi-final heat but his time of 1:48.79 was not fast enough to see him advance to the Friday final.
Rhoden will have a shot at a 4x400m relay medal after helping Clemson to a time of 2:59.78 that saw the advance to the final.
Barbados’ Rasheeme Griffith, a junior at Tennessee, ran 49.00, the third-fastest time going into the final of the 400m hurdles. He finished third in the last of three and fastest of the semi-final. Alabama Chris Robinson won the heat in 48.79 with Baylor University’s Nathaniel Ezekiel finishing second in 48.95.
Jamaica’s national 400m champion JeVaughn Powell is through to the final of the 400m with a time of 45.02. The University of Florida junior’s time was the seventh fastest to qualify.
Justin Robinson of Arizona State ran a time of 44.54 to lead all qualifiers into the final set for Friday.
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