• Sunday’s final lived up to expectation. It was a good build-up, because no-one could really call it — if you looked on social media or talked to people, everyone had a different opinion of who was going to win it.
• Asher-Smith won silver in the 100m three years ago and had high expectations of herself, but she still matched her personal best so you can’t ask for much more than that.
Image: FILE
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is amazing. The 100m is arguably the most difficult event to repeat as champion, and she’s done it five times.
Her longevity is extremely impressive, having won her first 100m world title in 2009, and I think it’s often underrated. She’s lived in the shadow of Usain Bolt.
They both won their first Olympic titles in the same year, 2008. He’s long since retired and she’s still going, she’s had a child, come back, and run even faster.
It’s a testament to her greatness — her longevity and consistency is amazing in an event that is so difficult. The one thing she is missing from her resume is the world record. If she was able to break the world record, then you could make the case that she’s had an even greater career than Bolt.
Sunday’s final lived up to expectation. It was a good build-up, because no-one could really call it — if you looked on social media or talked to people, everyone had a different opinion of who was going to win it.
They weren’t consistent, but all of those opinions were that it was going to be a Jamaican - Shelly-Ann, Shericka Jackson, or Elaine Thompson-Herah.
That’s what you want, you want that sort of race where everyone’s got a different opinion of who is going to win because that means it is so competitive. You remember the Bolt days when everyone knew he was going to win, it was just a matter of whether he was going to break a record or not.
That’s great, but what track and field is really all about at the end of the day is the competitiveness. The other narrative was whether or not someone would be able to spoil the party, someone like Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith or Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast, but as it went through the rounds, it looked increasingly less likely that it was going to happen.
Asher-Smith, who finished fourth behind the three Jamaicans, has called this the golden age of women’s sprinting, and I absolutely agree with that. You could say that Fraser-Pryce and Thompson-Herah are the greatest two female sprinters of all time, they both have repeated as Olympic champions.
Then you’ve got Jackson coming in who has run 10.77 this year, and the Americans who, coming into this, were running really fast times as well. They weren’t able to repeat those times at this championship, but it is an incredible time in women’s sprinting.
This wasn’t Asher-Smith’s time — but maybe it will come
Asher-Smith won silver in the 100m three years ago and had high expectations of herself, but she still matched her personal best so you can’t ask for much more than that.
Because she is running in this golden era, I think that she is sometimes put under pressure that is unrealistic. I said before that she can run a personal best and the others don’t have to and she could still find herself not on the podium. That’s exactly what happened in Eugene, because that is the quality that she is up against.
It may come at some point, maybe this just isn’t the time. It’s going to be the same in the 200m, which starts on Monday. The last time in Doha, when Asher-Smith won the 200m world title, some of the best female sprinters did not show up, which opened up some space.
This time, it’s looking likely that they’re going to - I just spoke to Fraser-Pryce and she said she’s definitely running the 200m. She knows that people are running really fast but she can run fast too, and she’s very excited about it.
Jackson was disappointed with her 200m last year at the Olympic Games and will want to try to get a medal or win that one as well, so it’s going to be very competitive.
I think that American Abby Steiner has a real chance in that race. She will be tired from the collegiate season, but if she can get over the fatigue I think she can get a medal.
Crowds ‘getting better’ despite poor US promotion
In my previous column, I said how despite these World Championships being the biggest track and field event to be held in the United States since the 1996 Olympics, coverage in the US has been poor.
I was very unimpressed by the small crowds at the beginning, though it has got a little bit better over the last two days. The first day was pretty weak.
I would say that the lack of promotion is still hurting the event, the lack of planning ahead to make sure it got full stands is disappointing. But it has got better.