Triumph in Tokyo

TRIUMPH IN TOKYO 2025

(10.81). “I tried not to be too emotional and focus on the race,” she said at trackside afterwards. “I’m giving myself an opportunity to go to Tokyo and make a great run.” Shelly Ann knows something about great runs. Though she was unsure and inconsistent as a junior, once she settled down as a senior athlete, she hardly ever disappointed during the many years she has worn the national colours. NO DARLING AT THE START OF HER CAREER The Waterhouse native wasn’t a complete unknown before she won the world’s hearts at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. After winning the Class One 100 metres in her final year at Champs, she did show some star flashes at the 2007 Penn Relays as a UTech student and during a few outings on the European circuit. She was, however, hardly anyone’s favourite in 2008 when she took on one of the hottest fields in any national final, a race that included Kerron Stewart, 2006 number one Sherone Simpson and “VCB” (Veronica Campbell Brown), who was already a two time Olympic champion and the world’s best up to late June of that year. When the dust settled, Shelly Ann had finished in between Stewart and Simpson for second; Campbell Brown – who had clocked 10.88, was fourth – and off the 100

At “A Night of Excellence”, the June event hosted by her longtime sponsors, Nike, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce officially announced that the 2025 national trials would be her last race in Jamaica. At left is Mrs. Olive McNaughton, publisher of Jamaica Sports Magazine , who attended the invitation-only event marking the partnership and close relationship between the two women.

onlookers may not have realized that she’d only finished third. For the moment, anyway, the place was all hers, and she kept moving and waving, coming to a complete stop only to accept the embrace of her fellow sprint legend, Usain Bolt. Tina Clayton, the youngster who was a whole career younger than Shelly Ann and who had just won the national title, went off undelayed to check on her injured sister. Tia, already a two time world junior sprint champion, now faced the prospect of missing Tokyo entirely.

The faithful breathed a sigh of relief, no longer worried about how Fraser Pryce could stop the twins or world silver medallist Shericka Jackson from achieving individual spots on the team. Some knew better: “Shelly Ann has never not made a team since 2008,” analyst Bruce James had said in his pre race remarks. Retirement would have to wait. Fraser Pryce clocked 10.91 seconds, third behind Shericka Jackson (10.88) and brand new national champion Tina Clayton