NAIROBI, May 11 (Xinhua) — Jamaican feminine dash icon Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce hopes that a powerful run in Nairobi, Kenya, will assist her defend her world title in Budapest with simply 100 days remaining earlier than the worldwide observe and subject occasion.
Fraser-Pryce is in Kenya for the fourth version of the Kip Keino Classic, a star-studded World Athletics Continental Tour Gold occasion, which is able to happen on Saturday on the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani. She will compete within the ladies’s 100m sprint.
Speaking on Thursday forward of the occasion, the place she achieved a time of 10.67 final 12 months earlier than securing the world title in Eugene, Oregon, with the identical world-leading mark in August 2022, the 36-year-old three-time Olympic champion goals to kick off her season on a excessive observe, celebrating her current recognition because the 2022 Laureus Sports Awards Female Athlete of the Year in Lausanne, Switzerland.
“I haven’t run since September last year, but I’m looking forward to competing well at Kasarani. It’s a different year, so I want to see where I stand for now,” Fraser-Pryce stated.
“Last year, I ran 200m in Kingston before coming here; this time, I haven’t run at all. So, I need to come in, have a good time, execute, and see where I am. I’m sure it’ll be fantastic,” she added.
In Nairobi, she is going to face newly minted Oceania file holder Zoe Hobbs from New Zealand, who formally dipped under the 11.00-second barrier on the Sydney Track Classic, clocking 10.97 on March 11.
Fraser-Pryce will vie for her eleventh world title, however the anticipated showdown in opposition to American Sha’Carri Richardson, who ran a world-leading 10.76 and set a Doha Diamond League meet file final week, is not going to happen in Nairobi. Richardson is barely anticipated to compete within the ladies’s 200m.
“I feel good in this body; I definitely feel like a 21-year-old, which is great, but no two years are ever the same,” she stated.
“So, you continue to work, and I chose that. You correct things in training and then execute those improvements. Last year, I built on that – on the experiences and the moments that I had this year,” remarked the Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion.