DESTINY IN DOHA 2019
2019 DESTINY IN DOHA
As this is wrien, the 27‐year‐old Thompson has the upper hand aer a fast finish
Both women want more. “Time‐ wise, I believe I can dip below the 10.70 barrier," Fraser Pryce resolved when she spoke to the Jamaica Gleaner last year at the start of her comeback, "I know I can do it.” Thompson has the same idea. Speaking recently about her journey back to the heights she reached at the Olympics, she said, “topping my PB is one step on that journey.” Their racing styles are a perfect contrast. Shelly rockets away from the blocks and holds on. Elaine starts more slowly and finishes fast. Aer seeing them at the Naonal Championships, NBC Sports track and field analyst Ato Boldon pre‐ dicted a close run in Doha. “If they race 10 mes, I think it would be 5‐5 or 6‐4”, Boldon opined. “They’re that evenly matched”, he said then. “I give a lile bit more credit, I think, to Elaine because I can look at Elaine, know that Achilles is sll bothering her”, he qualified. “She can’t push out of the blocks like she used to, so her forces are a lile bit more vercal than horizon‐ tal”, he analysed, “and she’s sll running. I mean, they’re right at their personal bests.” Since then, Fraser Pryce has won four of her five 100‐metre races highlighted by a nippy 10.74 in Lausanne and a comfortable 10.78 in London. Though Thompson won the Pan‐American Games in the chilly Peruvian capital of Lima, the veteran has convinced some that she will win her fourth World tle in the 100. Among those backers is the respected US publicaon Track & Field News which predicted a Jamaican 1‐2 in the 100, with Fraser‐Pryce ahead of Thompson. Both have good reasons to want to win. Thompson was stopped from adding the 2017 World 100 tle to
her twin Olympic gold medals by a stomach bug that had her voming before the final two years ago in London. Fraser Pryce’s last Olympic campaign was spoilt by a toe injury that made it impossible for her to train normally. Thompson has worked shrewdly to nurse her troublesome Achilles. “Honestly, it’s not 100 per cent, but I’m coping. I’m dealing with it,” she said in February, detailing the regular therapy she undergoes to combat the problem. “It’s really hard to treat, but honestly, I’m doing the best that I can.” Her clubmate comes in with experi‐ ence, and Doha will be her sixth World Championships. In her sec‐ ond, the epic Berlin staging in 2009, she fought off a challenge from fellow Jamaican Kerron Stewart. The race was decided on the lean, 10.73, then a naonal record, to Stewart’s 10.75 seconds. “I led from start to finish, but for me it was one of those moments that I actually got to the Championships excited looking forward to the compeon and I just got out of the blocks and I remember Kerron coming back at me and we both went 1‐2”, Fraser Pryce recalled in August. Thompson lost to Dutch star Dafne Schippers at the 2015 World Cham‐ pionships over 200 metres to, by 0.03. That was her first test on the global stage. Now with her Achilles behaving and as her third World Championship approaches, she is seeking the double. Ironically, that double hasn’t been done since Fraser Pryce did it in 2013. Success in both would cement Thompson’s place as one of the best sprinters of this generaon but in the 100, Fraser Pryce stands in her way. The big queson is: who will win?
SHELLY OR ELAINE? ELAINE OR SHELLY? TWO WOMEN, ONE GOLD
earned her an infinitesimal edge at the Naonal Senior Championships in June in 10.73 seconds. The win was also a triumph over the Achilles tendon trouble that has dogged her since 2017. Fraser Pryce led for 95 me‐ tres and finished in the same me – 10.73 – as a reward for the hard work she has put in since giving birth to a son in 2017. Only one of the pair can wear the World Championships gold medal in Doha. The clash will pit Thomp‐ son against the woman she ad‐ mired as a youngster. “When I was growing up, I normally watched Merlene Oey, then Veronica Campbell‐Brown and then Shelly‐ Ann Fraser‐ Pryce. They were like the trendseers for me,” Thomp‐ son told the Voice newspaper in 2017. With some of her contemporaries gone, Fraser‐Pryce is happy to have Thompson there keeping her sharp in pracce at the MVP Track Club. “It seems we push each other to train harder”, she said in July, “but it’s like one of those unspoken things that happens, it’s here or there, but we just know that when we get to the line, we’re just going to train hard and just try to hit the mes.” Elaine’s presence in training and the coaching of Stephen Francis has spurred Fraser‐Pryce to a fine season’s campaign. In 2018, she produced just one 100 metre run under 11 seconds. As at August 29, the ‘Mummy Rocket’ has already laid down 7 sub‐11s. Moreover, the 10.73 isn’t far off the naonal record she also shares with Thompson at 10.70 seconds.
HUBERT LAWRENCE
Either one of them winning would be a gift to Jamaica. Now 32, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is the most successful 100- metre sprinter in the history of athletics. But Elaine Thompson has carved her own niche since the 2016 Olympics, with the first sprint double by a woman since 1988. All things being equal, the two will meet in Doha in the 100-metre final on September 29 at the IAAF World Championships. That race will answer one question: who is faster – Elaine or Shelly? Shelly or Elaine?
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