Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce from Jamaica during the women’s 100m race at the International Athletics Meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland, Thursday, July 20, 2023. (Urs Flueeler/Keystone via AP).
Jamaican sprinting legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce produced a meet record 10.82 seconds to win her first 100m race of the season at the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern event, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver Meeting in Switzerland on Thursday.
The reigning 100m world champion won with ease, well clear of Zoe Hobbs of New Zealand who finished second in 11.08. Kennedy Blackmon of the USA was third in 11.11.
Natasha Morrison, who was third at the Jamaica Trials, finished fifth in 11.18.
Fraser-Pryce, who is bidding for a record-extending sixth world women’s 100m title at next month’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, missed a large chunk of the 2023 season due to a knee injury.
She ran for the first time on June 8 at the Jamaica Trial when winning her 200m heat in a world qualifying time of 22.39 seconds. Then the following day she finished a distant second to Shericka Jackson in the final.
Fraser-Pryce was forced to withdraw from her season’s opener at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi in May. The 36-year-old has a wild-card entry to the world championships as the defending champion.
Fraser-Pryce’s countryman and training partner Julian Forte won the men’s 100m in a season-best 9.99 seconds (+0.5 m/s). Hot on his heels was Rohan Watson, the Jamaica national champion, who clocked 10.03 seconds. Brandon Carnes of the USA finished third in 10.06.
