Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce got her 100m season to a blazing start with a dominating victory at the Top Athletics Lucerne meeting in Switzerland on Thursday.
Having missed out on her first 100m race in Botswana and Kenya earlier in the season, the five-time world champion, ran her first competitive races over 200m at the Jamaican national championships in early July.
However, with those races out of the way, the Pocket Rocket lined up for her first blue-ribbon dash of the season and she did not disappoint. After recovering from a poor start, Fraser-Pryce tore through the field to win a new meet record of 10.82.
She was well clear of New Zealand’s Zoe Hobbs, who took the runner-up spot in 11.08 with the USA’s Kennedy Blackmon close behind in 11.11.
The Men’s A final was also a Jamaica affair with Julian Forte breaking 10 seconds for the first time this season while edging newly minted Jamaican champion Rohan Watson.
Forte took the lead early and held on to win in 9.99 over the fast-finishing Watson, who clocked in at 10.03 for second place. The USA’s Brandon Carnes was third in 10.06.
The 110m hurdles featured another thrilling battle between the Jamaican duo of Tyler Mason and Orlando Bennett. On the final day of the Jamaican national championships earlier this month, Bennett nipped Mason at the line to deny the former Jamaica College standout of a place on Jamaica’s team to the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
On that Sunday, Bennett finished third in 13.19 to Mason who was fourth in 13.22. On Thursday, Mason turned the tables on his compatriot winning a hard-fought race in 13.19 with Bennett finishing second in 13.22.
Eric Edwards of the USA was a close third in 13.24.
Jamaican champion, Janieve Russell ran a new season’s best and meet record of 53.65 to record a comfortable victory in the 400m hurdles over Dalilah Mohammed of the USA who clocked in at 54.01 just ahead of Andrenette Knight, who finished in 54.13.
On Sunday, Rusheen McDonald ran the third-fastest time ever run by a Jamaican when he raced to a season-best 44.03 to finish behind Bahamian Steven Gardiner’s who ran a world-leading 43.74.
On Thursday, he proved it was no fluke as he stormed to a commanding victory in 44.80. He was metres clear of Botswana’s Collen Kebinatshipi who ran 45.15 for second place. Germany’s Manuel Sanders was third in 45.28.