Eugene: Fast is Back in the Pre Classic Women’s 100 Meters

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the last two Olympics, joining Gail Devers and Wyomia Tyus in a select group of such Olympic repeat champions.  The Jamaican superstar is also the reigning World Championships gold medalist, adding to the gold she won in 2009.  She also won the most recent Pre Classic in a wind-aided 10.71 in 2013 – the fastest time in the world under any conditions since Fraser-Pryce clocked her Jamaican record 10.70 in 2012.  Fraser-Pryce won IAAF Diamond Trophies in 2012 and 2013, as well as another in the 200 in 2013.

Blessing Okagbare is the African record holder at 10.79.  She was 2nd behind Fraser-Pryce in the 2013 Pre Classic at 10.75w.  A multi-event threat, in 2013, she won World Championships medals in the long jump (silver) and 200 (bronze).  Okagbare was also Olympic bronze medalist in 2008 long jump.  She has set personal best-ever marks in the last three Pre Classics.  She won the Shanghai 100 meters earlier this month, giving her the early IAAF Diamond League lead.

USA’s Tianna Bartoletta has two major gold medals – one in the long jump (2005 World Championships) and one in the 4x100 (2012 Olympics).  She was 4th in 2012 Olympics 100.  After an attempt at winter bobsledding, Bartoletta has regrouped as a long jumper and sprinter.  She is scheduled to compete in the long jump Friday night before Saturday’s 100.  She already has the early Diamond League lead in the long jump, winning at Doha with a world-leading 22-11¼ (6.99).  Bartoletta is the reigning IAAF Diamond Trophy winner in the long jump.

The world’s fastest last year was American Tori Bowie, who ran 10.80.  She shocked the world with a world-leading 22.18 to win last year’s Pre Classic 200 out of lane 1.  Bowie is also a former NCAA indoor and outdoor long jump champion from Southern Mississippi.  She had the second-longest jump in the world last year behind Bartoletta.

Carmelita Jeter of the U.S. is the world’s second-fastest ever at 10.64.  She was ranked No. 1 in the world three straight years (2009-11), the only athlete to do so this century. Jeter is the 2011 World Championships gold medalist and also won silver at the 2012 Olympics.  She anchored the USA world-record 4x100 team that won gold in London.  Jeter won the first two IAAF Diamond Trophies in 2010 and 2011, adding another in the 200 in 2011.

Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson claimed the early 2015 world lead with a personal record 10.92 in April.  She backed that up a month later with another victory (10.97) over Okagbare and Allyson Felix in the Jamaica Invitational.  Her only previous races in the U.S. have been at the Penn Relays, where she helped her team to two Championship of Americas titles (2014 sprint medley, 2015 4x200).

Murielle Ahoure of Cote d’Ivoire was the 2013 World Championships silver medalist in both the 100 and 200.  She is a two-time silver medalist in the 60 meters at the World Indoor Championships (2012 & 2014).  Ahoure was last year’s African Championships gold medalist at 200 meters, and she won the NCAA indoor 200 meters while at Miami in 2009.

Michelle-Lee Ahye, 23, was a 2012 Olympic semi-finalist.  A 10.85 sprinter, she ran 10.97 to win the Florida Relays into a headwind.  She is the two-time national champion of Trinidad.

The event thus features three IAAF Diamond Trophy winners with a combined total of seven across three events – Fraser-Pryce (2012 & 2013 in the 100, 2013 in the 200), Jeter (2010 & 2011 in the 100, 2011 in the 200), and Bartoletta (2014 in the long jump).