Five-time world 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce believes if she can have a race on Friday where everything comes together, getting below 10.6 is possible.
The 35-year-old Jamaican has run a record six times below 10.70 so far this season with a seventh on the cards when she lines up against a stacked field that includes compatriots Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson in the blue-riband sprint at the Athletissima Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday.
It was at Lausanne in 2021 where she ran a lifetime best of 10.60.
Speaking at the pre-meet press conference on Thursday, the fastest woman in the world this year said her extraordinary consistency this season has been the result of constant practice and trust in her improved technique.
“When I started the season, I ran 10.6 in Kenya and I was shocked because I travelled all the way from Kingston and I was a bit tired but my execution was good and I realized the key to running fast and having consistent times is making sure I practice my technique,” she said, “and then to be able to have that consistency is wonderful and it shows that your hard work and staying true to your technique actually works.”
Since her last race in Monaco on August 10, when she ran a world-leading 10.62, Fraser-Pryce spent the last two weeks enjoying a bit of downtime celebrating the birthdays of her son Zyon and her husband Jason, as well as getting in some practice before taking on the final Diamond League races of the season.
Now back in Europe for the culmination of a long season and an eye on a fifth Diamond League title, the two-time Olympic champion, believes she still has a faster time in her tiring legs.
In May, she revealed that she was targeting 10.5 or 10.4 before the end of the 2021/2022 season. On Thursday, she said she doesn’t need a perfect race for that to happen.
“I don’t think a perfect race exists because there is always something but I want to have one of those races that everything works together or something that doesn’t work I am able to counter that at 60 or 70 so watching the races and having my coach telling me what’s happening, if I am able to fix or tweak a few things then I will be able to run faster than 10.6,” she said.
In addition to her compatriots, Fraser-Pryce will be lining up in the 100m against Africa’s fastest woman Marie Jose Ta Lou, European 100m silver medallist Majinga Kambundji as well as Americans Twanisha Terry, Aleia Hobbs and Tamari Davis.