World 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce delighted the fans at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday with a 10.67 seconds (0.5m/s) victory to equal her world-leading time.
She was unchallenged at Stade Charlety as she matched her time at the Kip Keino Classic in Kenya last month. She also beat Jamaican countrywoman and two-time reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah’s meet record of 10.72, set last year. The time is only seven-hundredths off the personal best she ran last year to put herself third on the all-time list.
Fraser-Pryce, the 2008 and 2012 Olympic 100m champion, is the only woman to ever break 10.70 seconds before July 1 in any year and is now the big favourite to win the gold medal at next month’s world championships in Eugene, Oregon, United States.
Great Britain’s Daryll Neita produced a season-best time to finish second behind the three-time Olympic gold medalist.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast, who missed a 100m medal by one place in Tokyo, finished third in 11.01 seconds, also a season’s best.
Thompson-Herah is second in the world way back at 10.79 on the Eugene track that will stage the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
Fraser-Pryce and Thompson-Herah could go head-to-head in the 100m and 200m at the Jamaican Championships next week, though the 35-year-old Fraser-Pryce has a bye into the world championships 100m as defending champion.
Fraser-Pryce was no match last year to Thompson-Herah, including a 100m silver at the Olympics.
The 29-year-old Thompson-Herah has been challenged by injuries this season and has yet to race against Fraser-Pryce in 2022.
At the last world championships in 2019, Fraser-Pryce became the oldest woman to win an Olympic or world 100m title.
She will go for a 10th world championship gold medal in Eugene, Oregon.
