'10.6: Only a few can achieve it'

PARIS • Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce declared that she was feeling "very good" technically and physically, as she hammered home her status as world championship favourite on Saturday by equalling her world-best time this year to win the 100m at the Paris Diamond League meet.

The veteran Jamaican sprinter triumphed in 10.67sec, shrugging off the crushing 30-deg C heat at the city's Charlety stadium.

A two-time Olympic champion over 100m, the 35-year-old equalled the 2022 best time she set in Nairobi last month.

"I feel very good, technically it was very good. The goal is always to be on top technically, then the lap times follow," said Fraser-Pryce, who has also won the 100m four times at the world championships.

"Physically I was good too. Running 10.6, only a few sprinters can achieve that."

Her victory has also illustrated her threat to reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah at next month's world championships in Eugene, Oregon. The latter has the second-fastest time this year at 10.79sec.

Both will meet this week at the Jamaican trials.

Britain's Daryll Neita was second on Saturday in 10.99sec with Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast third in 11.01sec.

Fraser-Pryce has already qualified for the 100m in Eugene as she is the defending champion, but has "not decided" whether she will attempt the sprint double in Oregon.

"We'll see if I'm ready to do it physically and mentally," she had said on Friday.

After racing to 10.05sec over the 100m in Oslo on Thursday, Andre de Grasse returned to his favoured 200m in the French capital.

But the Canadian Olympic gold medallist was only fourth in a race won by Luxolo Adams of South Africa in 19.82sec.

Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh, silver medallist at the 2019 world championships and bronze winner at last year's Tokyo Olympics, won the high jump with a season-best 2.01m.

Mahuchikh won on her second attempt, improving on her previous season-leading 2.00m at the Eugene Diamond League meet.

She failed three times at 2.05m, a centimetre above her career best.

The 20-year-old topped an all-Ukraine podium in the event ahead of Iryna Gerashchenko (1.98m) and Yuliya Levchenko (1.95m).

There was also a season best in the 3,000m steeplechase for Bahrain's Winfred Mutile Yavi.

The 22-year-old won in 8min 56.55sec, making her the fourth-best performer in the history of the discipline. Behind her, Ethiopia's Sembo Alemayehu, only 17 years old, clocked 9:09.19.

Close to a world record in the 110m hurdles last week, the United States' Devon Allen, who plans to juggle between American football and athletics, won in 13.16sec. His performance came just 48 hours after his 13.22sec run in Oslo.

In the women's 100m hurdles, Nigeria's Tobi Amusan broke the African record in 12.41sec, the third-best run of the season.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE