(BBC SPORT) Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, centre, won the 100m at the Kip Keino Classic as Christine Mboma, right, pulled up
Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has run the fastest women’s 100m so far this year with victory in 10.67 seconds in Nairobi.
Only four other women have ever run faster at the distance. Eight-time Olympic medallist Fraser-Pryce won comfortably on Saturday after Namibia’s Christine Mboma, the 200m Olympic silver medallist, pulled up.
“I have been doing this for 13 years. Even time I run I set new records, it’s incredible,” the 35-year-old said. Fraser-Pryce’s time at the Kip Keino Classic in the Kenyan capital was just short of her personal best of 10.60, which she set in Lausanne, Switzerland, last August. Americans Marion Jones (10.65) and Carmelita Jeter (10.64), fellow Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.54) and the controversial world record holder American Florence Griffith-Joyner (10.49) are the only women to have ever run faster.
Later this month, Olympic champion Thompson-Herah will take on Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith in the 100m at the at the Birmingham Diamond League.
Thompson-Herah recorded her 10.54 time in August 2021 and has said she is aiming to beat Griffith-Joyner’s world record, set in 1988.
Fraser-Pryce will then face Thompson-Herah at this year’s World Championships, which start in Eugene, Oregon, on 15 July.
There was also a world-leading time in the men’s 100m on Saturday when Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala secured victory in 9.85 to beat American Kerley (9.92). Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs withdrew at the last minute with intestinal problems. The Italian, a surprise winner at last year’s Olympics, was due to run the distance for the first time since Tokyo, with silver medallist Fred Kerley also in action.
