Target: 10.48

Elaine Thompson Herah has the world of athletics on the edge of its collective seat. Her fine running in Tokyo at the recently concluded Olympics Games and last Saturday at the Prefontaine Classic has brought the women’s 100m world record within reach and many hope she will get it tonight at the Wanda Diamond League meet in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The late Florence Griffith Joyner, or Flo Jo, as she was called, of the United States set the mark at 10.49 seconds in 1988, and it has been unapproachable since. However, Thompson Herah clocked 10.61s to win the first half of a historic double in Tokyo, and on Saturday, she zoomed even closer with a superb run of 10.54s.

The fastest 100m time by a woman in Lausanne is 10.72 seconds by American Marion Jones in 1998, but Thompson Herah need not be dismayed. Lausanne is a happy hunting ground for Jamaicans and there have been world records set on the straight-away. Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell have set personal bests there, with Blake speeding 9.69s in 2012. Four years earlier, Powell did his best-ever time – 9.72s on the same track.

She’ll be happy to know that in 1985, Leroy Burrell set a 100m record of 9.85 seconds in Lausanne and that in 2006, China’s Liu Xiang flitted through the 110m hurdles in 12.88s, a world record at the time.

Thompson Herah says she has watched tapes of Flo Jo and said that while she initially had no thoughts of challenging her record, now she believes anything is possible.

“She was a good inspiration to the sport,” Thompson Herah said during the meet’s official press conference yesterday. “A few years ago, the question was thrown to me if I can break that record, and I was like, ‘No, it’s not possible. My eyes are not on that right now,’ and for me to run a 10.54, that’s definitely in the reach, so yes, it is possible to break a Flo Jo record, and I would love to do that, of course.”

Wind conditions slowed the 29-year-old in Tokyo so she might crack a quiet smile at the wind readings in the fastest 10 100m races held in Lausanne and in both of those world records. Only Blake’s blitz had an opposing wind and that was just a wisp, at -0.1 metre per second. Burrell had an aiding breeze of 1.2 and Liu an almost identical 1.1.

In Tokyo, she dashed 10.61s into an opposing wind of 0.6. On Saturday, in Eugene, Oregon, conditions were better, with the wind helping at a rate of 0.9 metres per seconds.

If today’s race gets the 1.4 metre per second win enjoyed by Justin Gatlin in 2015, conditions will be almost perfect for fast running.

The race itself, like the one on Saturday, will feature all Tokyo medallists as Thompson Herah will be joined by fellow Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson. The field is completed by Alexandre Burghardt of Belgium, Switzerland’s Ajla del Ponte and Mujinga Kambundji, Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josée Ta Lou, and Great Britain’s Daryll Neita.

Fraser-Pryce, though, is happy that the global athletics fraternity now acknowledges that Flo Jo’s record can be challenged.

“Elaine is much much closer than I am,” she said with a laugh during the press conference. “So, definitely, it’s good to be able to challenge a record that for women, for a long time, we thought was impossible and it speaks to just the evolution of sprinting, what mechanics can do to sprinting, and the different things that are involved in sprinting. So to be able to be in that conversation, or to have that conversation is truly remarkable.

“I know that Lausanne has a very good track. I ran 10.7 here in 2019, after coming off a plane, so I know it’s a very good track. Hopefully, tomorrow, the ladies will have a superb race.”

The benevolent wind isn’t the only reason sprinters speed in Lausanne. The location stands at 495m above sea level, far below the World Athletics 1000m high altitude threshold but far higher than Tokyo, 40m and Eugene, 131 metres. If she is rested and recovered from her flight from the US to Europe, tonight could be the night.

sports@gleanerjm.com

Five fastest women’s 100m times in Lausanne

10.72 ±0.0 Marion Jones August 25m 1998

10.74 +0.2 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce July 5, 2019

10.77 +0.9 Irina Privalova July 6, 1994

10.78 +0.8 Elaine Thompson Herah August 25,2016

10.80 +1.1 Marion Jones July 2,1999

Five fastest men’s 100m times in Lausanne

9.69 -0.1 Yohan Blake August 23, 2012 PB

9.72 +0.2 Asafa Powell September 2, 2008 PB

9.75 +1.4 Justin Gatlin July 9, 2015

9.78 +1.0 Asafa Powell June 30, 2011

9.80 +0.1 Justin Gatlin July 3, 2014

World records in Lausanne

9.85 +1.2 Leroy Burrell July 6,1994 men’s 100m

12.88 +1.1 Liu Xiang July 11, 2006 men’s 110m hurdles

Schedule for Jamaicans iin action (Local time):

1:03 p.m. - Women’s 400m - Candice McLeod

1:40 p.m. - Men’s 110m hurdles - Rasheed Broadbell, Ronald Levy, Hansle Parchment

1:45 p.m. - Women’s triple jump - Kimberly Williams, Shanieka Ricketts

2:07 p.m. - Women’s 100m - Elaine Thompson Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson

2:18 p.m. - Women’s 400m hurdles - Leah Nugent, Janieve Russell