Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce avenged her Olympic Games defeat to Jamaican compatriot Elaine Thompson-Herah by winning the 100m at the Lausanne Diamond League meeting on Thursday in the third fastest ever time.
The 34-year-old Olympic champion from 2008 and 2012 clocked 10.60sec, just five days after Thompson-Herah had run the second fastest of 10.54sec at Eugene in the United States.
Thompson-Herah, the triple gold medallist from Tokyo thanks to wins in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay, was second Thursday in 10.64sec, the eighth-best time in the event’s history.
“I had a very good feeling and I’m happy to have been able to do that time,” said Fraser-Pryce after her win in front of a packed, unmasked crowd at a chilly Stade Olympique de la Pontaise where the temperature struggled up to 18 degrees.
Her winning run was aided by a strong but legitimate +1.7 m/s tailwind.
The nine-time world championship gold medallist added: “I continue to work well, race after race. I believed in myself and tonight I am leaving with a personal best.
“I knew that I was capable of it even if the wind this evening was fresh.”
Both women are agonisingly close to breaking the world record of 10.49sec set by Florence Griffith-Joyner of the United States in 1988.
Fraser-Pryce and Thompson-Herah will get their next chance to shatter the 33-year-old record at the next Diamond League meet in Paris on Saturday.
“My body is tired after a long season and especially after having broken my own record four times in a month,” said Thompson-Herah.
“I wasn’t thinking about the world record. I just plan to work hard and finish the season strongly.”
Shericka Jackson was third to complete a Jamaican podium sweep.
Venezuelan triple jumper Yulimar Rojas came close to improving her world record of 15.67m set at the Olympics.
Rojas was leading the competition with a wind-aided 15.56m (+3.5 m/s) on her opening attempt and then added a 15.52m (+0.6) –- further than Inessa Kravets’ old world record of 15.50m –- to set a new Diamond League record.
She would go on to win the competition with a 15.11m ‘Final Three’ jump.
Olympic pole vault champion Armand Duplantis endured a disappointing return to action after his Tokyo triumph.
The Swede managed just 5.62m and failed three times at 5.82m which was the winning height for Christopher Nilsen.
World champion Sam Kendricks, also with 5.82m, was second.
America’s Kendricks missed the Olympics due to a positive Covid-19 test.
Russia’s Timur Morgunov claimed third place with a height of 5.72m.
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