MOSCOW (AP) — This U.S.-Jamaican sprint rivalry is turning into a rout at the world championships.
With her long hot-pink hair slashing in the air behind her, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce captured the 100 meters Monday with a winning margin of Boltesque proportions.
Fraser-Pryce sped to an early lead that kept growing and finished in a world-leading 10.71 seconds. She even had time to clench and pump her fist as she crossed the line.
Silver medalist Murielle Ahoure of the Ivory Coast trailed by a massive 0.22 seconds, more than double the previous top margin in 30 years of world championships. Defending champion Carmelita Jeter of the United States took bronze the in 10.94.
Like the mighty Usain Bolt, who won the 100 on Sunday, Fraser-Pryce now has two Olympic and two world titles in the 100 at the same age of 26.
“I am Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. I compare myself to nobody,” the Jamaican said. “What Usain has, he has. What I have is hard work.”
What Bolt certainly doesn’t have is hair extensions sent over from a Jamaican hairdresser: “It makes me pretty prettier.”
Before a sparse crowd at Luzhniki Stadium, she gave Jamaica a 2-0 lead over the Americans in the sprint duel, showing the Caribbean island produces the fastest runners on the planet.
While Bolt is a slow starter and the greatest of finishers, Fraser-Pryce reacts to the gun like few others.
“Most persons in the race are closers, when they get to 70 and 60 they are opening up,” Fraser-Pryce said. “But I knew I had an advantage. And that was my start. And that was what I focused on.”
By the end, the others could only watch her tresses flap across the line, pretty in pink.
The U.S. got its part of the glory, too, when David Oliver led a 1-2 finish in the 110 hurdles with Ryan Wilson second. It would have been a clean sweep had defending champion Jason Richardson not stumbled near the end and fell back to fourth.
Unlike Fraser-Pryce, Christine Ohuruogu never led in her race until the last moment of the 400 final to beat defending champion Amantle Montsho by four-thousandths of a second. She set a British record to regain the world title she first won in 2007, dipping at the line to cap a great comeback.
“When I finished I didn’t know if I’d won it. I didn’t want to get over-excited until my name came up,” Ohuruogu said.
Montsho said she was beaten by an elementary error thinking she had won before crossing the line.
“I did not see Christine coming from behind,” Montsho said. “If I knew that I would push my chest forward and would have made it.”
At the end of Day 3 at the championships, the U.S. leads the medals standings with three gold and six overall. Germany is second with four medals overall after Raphael Holzdeppe upset Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie of France on a countback to win the pole vault.
In the shot put, Valerie Adams became the first woman to win four straight individual world titles.
The Olympic champion from New Zealand won with a toss of 68 feet, 6 inches. She has now won 38 straight events and has won every major championship at least twice.
AP Photo/Martin Meissner
