They can’t beat Shelly, says Russell-Love

For the first time since she won the Olympic gold at age 21 in 2008, super sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce isn’t one of the unanimous favourites for a championship 100 metres medal. The speed of others and her own interrupted preparation have influenced even the most experienced track and field analysts to push her off the podium in their predictions for the 19th World Athletics Championships, which starts today in Budapest, Hungary.

However, there is at least one voice backing the six-time World Championship to the max. Analyst Gillian Russell-Love, the 1995 World Championships 100 metre hurdles finalist, says the decorated Jamaican will be hard to beat if she is fully recovered from her reported knee injury. Russell is placing her stock in Fraser-Pryce’s big meet pedigree.

“The girl is so tough. She’s so determined and such a competitor,” Russell-Love said of Fraser-Pryce on August 11.

She’s spot on target. Since that big win in 2008, Fraser-Pryce has collected five World 100m titles, retained her Olympic gold in 2012 and taken silver and bronze in two other Olympic finals. In addition, her win at last year’s World Championships was accomplished in 10.67 seconds, a meet record.

Along the way, the Elite Performance Track Club lynchpin has compiled an unmatched total of 80 sub-11 times for the 100m.

A knee injury pushed her season opener to July and the 200m at the National Championships and she left well pleased with her runner-up time of 22.26 seconds. Then she took two trips over 100m and recorded victories in 10.82 seconds, which makes her the fourth-fastest woman in the world this year and 10.83.

Compatriot Shericka Jackson, American Sha’Carri Richardson and Cote d’Ivoire’s veteran Marie-Josée Ta Lou are ahead of her, but Russell is backing the ‘Mummy Rocket’. Asked if Fraser-Pryce could be ready to win a sixth 100m title to her championship portfolio, Russell replied, “It’s hard to count her out. First race back, 10.83 then 10.82. That’s hard to beat and she’s had a month to work on that too.”

Jackson, the reigning 200m champion, stepped to a world leading time of 10.65 to win the nationals title, with Richardson clocking 10.71 in the heats of the US Trials and Ta Lou speeding 10.75 in Oslo. St Lucia’s Commonwealth Games runner-up Julien Alfred is the only person to beat Richardson this year and the American has beaten Jackson twice.

Alfred is the fifth-fastest woman this year, at 10.83.

Russell, the 1997 World Indoor 60-metres silver-medal winner, added one note of caution regarding the 36-year-old Fraser-Pryce. “If there’s nothing wrong with her knee, they can’t beat her,” she emphasised.