Swedish pole vault world record holder Mondo Duplantis says he’d beat Jamaican five-time World 100m Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in a 100m race.

Speaking at the press-conference ahead of Friday’s Brussels Diamond League meet, Duplantis made the declaration after Fraser-Pryce jokingly asked him the question.

“How fast do you think you could do in a 100m against me?” said Fraser-Pryce, the current world leader at 10.62 and owner of six sup 10.7 times this season, the most in history.

“I would beat you,” said Duplantis in reply before Fraser-Pryce jokingly responded “survey says, that’s a lie.”

The reigning World and Olympic pole vault champion then recalled his days running the short sprint back in high school in the USA in 2018 where he ran a wind-aided 10.57.

Fraser-Pryce then pointed out how much time had passed between then and now but Duplantis made the claim that he’s faster now.

Finally, the two world-beaters decided to put a friendly wager on a race between them at next year’s Brussels Diamond League event.

World Athletics has postponed the 2023 World Indoor Athletics Championships that was to be held in China because of the “ongoing pandemic conditions”, the athletics world-governing body has announced.

The eyes of the track and field world will turn to Brussels, Belgium on Friday where another mouthwatering match-up in the women’s 100m could unfold at the Diamond League.

Based on the entry list, the race could feature a clash between 100m World champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, 200m World champion Shericka Jackson and flamboyant young American sprinter Sha ‘Carri Richardson.    

It remains to be seen, though, whether Fraser-Pryce, who has dominated the event so far this season, will face the starter.  The sprinter, who has run below 10.7s on six occasions this season, pulled out of last week’s Lausanne Diamond League meet with a tight hamstring.

In her absence, the race was won by the United States Aleia Hobbs who surprised World championship silver medalist Jackson.  Some attention for the race will also be turned to Richardson who has had a poor season to date but did managed to secure a narrow win over Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah at the Luzern World Athletics Continental Tour-Silver Meet in Switzerland on Tuesday.

Rushell Clayton’s good run of form continued on Tuesday when she won the 400m hurdles at the Palio Città della Quercia, Stadio Quercia in Rovereto, Italy.

2012 Olympic Javelin champion Keshorn Walcott returned to the winner’s circle at the Luzern World Athletics Continental Tour-Silver Meet in Switzerland on Tuesday.

Walcott produced a best throw of 84.82m in the fifth round to take the win ahead of Latvian Patriks Gailums (83.30m) and Curtis Thompson of the USA (82.87m).

Bahamian Anthonique Strachan won the Women’s 200m in 22.66 ahead of Aminatou Seyni of Niger (22.71) and Jenna Prandini of the USA (22.82).

On the Men’s side, recently crowned NACAC champion Andrew Hudson of Jamaica was second in 20.47 behind the USA’s Kyree King (20.40). Charlie Dobson of Great Britain was third in 20.52.

Commonwealth Games champion Janieve Russell ran 55.25 for second in the Women’s 400m hurdles behind American Dalilah Muhammad (54.57). Finland’s Viivi Lehikoinen was third in 55.41.

Double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah was narrowly beaten by American Sha’Carri Richardson in the Women’s 100m at the Luzern World Athletics Continental Tour-Silver Meet in Switzerland on Tuesday.

In -2.0 second winds, Thompson-Herah ran 11.30 to narrowly finish behind Richardson (11.29). The USA’s Celera Barnes ran 11.40 for third.

Jamaica’s Natasha Morrison was victorious in the B-final in 11.42 ahead of Egypt’s Bassant Hemida (11.44) and Gambia’s Gina Bass (11.50).

On the Men’s side, World Championship semi-finalist Ackeem Blake ran 10.22 for third behind Commonwealth champion Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya (10.18) and American World Championship silver medallist Marvin Bracy (10.17).

Commonwealth champion Rasheed Broadbell continued his stellar form in 2022 with a win at the Luzern World Athletics Continental Tour-Silver meet in Switzerland on Tuesday.

Broadbell ran 13.36 to win the 110m hurdles ahead of Americans Eric Edwards (13.53) and Jamal Britt (13.54). Olympic champion Hansle Parchment was fourth in 13.54.

The 22-year-old Broadbell has now won his last five races, including a personal best 12.99 to win at the Lausanne Diamond League last Friday.

In the B-final, Jamaica’s National U-20 record holder Damion Thomas was third in 13.71 behind Japan’s Izumiya Shunsuke (13.61) and American Robert Dunning (13.55).

In the Women’s 100m hurdles, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico ran 12.86 for second behind the USA’s Tia Jones (12.78). Jones’ teammate Tonea Marshall was third in 13.04.

Jamaican Olympian Simone Facey is now a certified coach of athletics.

On Sunday, Yohan Blake and Kimberly Williams won the 100m dash and triple jump competitions, respectively, at the 2022 TrueAthletes Classic in Leverkusen, Germany.

Blake, who in June signalled a return to form this year following a 9.85 clocking at the Jamaica National Championships, his fastest time in a decade, sped to a 9.96 timing to miss out on the meet record of 9.93 set in July 2019 by Arthur Cisse of the Ivory Coast.

Nonetheless, the time was good enough for the 2011 world 100m champion to win comfortably ahead of the USA’s Cravont Charleston, who finished in second place in a time of 10.12.

Jeremiah Azu of Great Britain picked up the other podium spot after finishing third in 10.16.

Williams, meanwhile, won the triple jump with a mark of 13.92m.

The 33-year-old Jamaican has been well off her best this season. She has only managed a best of 14.29m this season, well below her lifetime best of 14.69m.

However, against a less than a stellar field, she proved to be imperious.

Mariko Morimoto of Japan leapt out to a lifetime best of 13.82m to claim second place while Nesa Filipic of Slovenia mustered her best effort of 13.78m for third.

Jamaican Olympic finalist Damion Thomas was second in the 110m hurdles running 13.46 to finish runner-up to the USA’s Eric Edwards, who ran 13.40 for the victory.

Norway’s Vladimir Vukicevic finished third in 13.61.

200m World Champion Noah Lyles insists he would not be surprised to see Jamaica sprint star Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce break the longstanding women’s 100m world record, on the heels of a remarkable season to date.

Fraser-Pryce, the 100m World Champion, pulled out of a showdown with compatriots Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson earlier this week, after feeling some tightness in her hamstring.

Prior to that, however, the 35-year-old has been in near flawless form so far.  Fraser-Pryce has dipped below 10.7 on a record six occasions, with her best of 10.62 coming at the Morocco Diamond League meet two weeks ago.  Lyles an athlete who is no stranger to fast times himself believes the performances are an indication the Jamaican is on the verge of something special.

“I heard that she said she wanted to break the world record this year and I’m like yeah I can see that.  I mean consistently dropping below 10.7s, 10.6s like almost every race and that’s very scary,” Lyles said ahead of the Lausanne Diamond League meet.

“Anytime you see somebody running a time that’s almost the exact same time, very consistently, every race, it means they’re about to make a huge drop.  It happened for me in the 2018 season when I ran nothing but 19.6 every race and I dropped it down to 19.5.  This year I was just playing around in the area of 19.6, 19.7, and all of a sudden I just made that huge jump to 19.3,” he added.

Last season, it was another Jamaican who had the record in her sights.  After a sensational 2021, which saw her crowned the double Olympic champion in Tokyo, Thompson-Herah clocked the second fastest time ever recorded over the distance with a 10.54 run in Eugene, Oregon.

“When Elaine was running in 2021 and messing around with the 10.6, 10.7 area then she just dropped it to 10.5, that just wasn’t out of nowhere she was just consistently running the same pattern and when her body was ready, the wind was ready and the day was good, she was ready to go,” Lyles said.

 “I’m really just waiting on Shelly to have that moment where her body is ready and the day is right, the crowd is there and the wind is perfect, I’m not going to be shocked when that world record pops up or it's right next to it or maybe way ahead of it.”

The record of 10.49 held by the United States’ Florence Griffith-Joyner has stood since 1988.

Marileidy Paulino held off a strong challenge from Sada Williams to win the 400m at the Athletissima Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday.

The fates conspired against Jamaica’s 100m women and the USA’s Aleia Hobbs took full advantage to win in the blue-ribbon sprint in 10.87 at the Athletissima Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has pulled out of the women´s 100m final due to a muscle sprain she experienced during her warm-up earlier this evening, meet organisers have announced.

The 35-year-old Fraser-Pryce was expected to line up against fellow Jamaicans Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shericka Jackson as well as Marie Josee Ta Lou in the 100m that would also have Americans Aleia Hobbs, Twanisha Terry and Tamari Davis.

The severity of the injury is unknown and it is still too early to tell whether she will be fit in time for the Diamond League final in Zurich in two weeks.

Fraser-Pryce subsequently confirmed her withdrawal on her Facebook account.

"Had some discomfort in my hamstring a couple of days now and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. As a precaution, my coach decided not to risk it at this point," she said. "Will have a few days to get some treatment before Brussels. I’m extremely disappointed that I won’t be able to compete tonight and I’m sure you all are as well. Thanks again for the support and encouragement. No matter how hard we prepare sometimes things just don’t go as planned. The last thing I want to do is gain an injury/ injure myself." 

Rasheed Broadbell ran a new lifetime best and took a few big scalps along the way to victory in the 110m hurdles at the Athletissima Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday.

Broadbell, the Commonwealth Games champion, stormed from behind and surged to victory in 12.99, which equalled the season-best time by Grant Holloway, who led early but faded to third in 13.11. Trey Cunningham of the USA was second in 13.10.

Olympic champion Hansle Parchment finished fourth in 13.13.

Broadbell was overwhelmed by the achievement.

"I´m thanking God right now, I will never forget this race, it's my first time under 13 seconds and I´m very happy for it," he declared.

"Everyone comes here to do their best, so I just focus on my own race and try to execute what I have practised in training. I started my season with injuries but as you can see, as the season is progressing, it's getting better and better. New training camp, much better results, the proof is there. I am happy with how things are going right now."

Jamaica’s Janieve Russell and Andrenette Knight took second and third places, respectively, in the opening track event at the Athletissima Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday.

The race was won by the imperious Dutch athlete Femke Bol in a new meet record of 52.65.

The third Jamaican in the race, Rushell Clayton, fell late and did not finish.

Bol, who won the rare 400m hurdles/400m double at the recent European championships in Germany proved too strong for the field pulling away over the last 120m for a comfortable victory. Russell, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion, clocked 53.92 for second place.

Knight, who missed out on the 2022 World Championships in Oregon after she fell at the Jamaica national championships in June, finished third in 54.33.

Speaking afterwards, Russell said she was disappointed with the time.

“The race was okay but, honestly, I wanted to go faster. I felt that with such fast competitors in the field I could have put together a better race,” she said.

“I shuffled between a few hurdles and did not execute my technique correctly at times. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the result because it’s been a long season and I have run a lot. I love running and it’s part of the job that I do (to also do some 4x400ms for Jamaica), so even though my body is tired I´m happy to be racing. I look forward to coming back to Switzerland for the finals in Zurich.”

Meanwhile, Knight, who had not raced since she ran 53.85 at Marietta, Georgia on July 2, was happy with her run from lane one.

“Very pleased with my race,” she said, “I felt I executed my plans well this evening, especially since I had not competed in the last two months. I hope to continue improving and doing a PB this year. It will be great if I can make it to the Diamond League final.”