Two-time Olympic 100m Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will be competing at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer.
At a teleconference on February 14th, Fraser-Pryce stated ‘I’m not sure if it will be the 100m or the 200m, but I’m looking forward to doing it… I’ve never been to the Commonwealth Games.’
The fastest woman in the world had an incredibly successful 2013 campaign, winning three gold medals at the World Championships in Moscow (both sprints and relay) and finishing the season with the three fastest 100m times in the world for 2013.
The IAAF female athlete of the year has set her sights on completing a full indoor season, with her short term plan aimed towards the World Indoor Championships in Sopot. Fraser-Pryce stated ‘I believe I’m in great shape, I’ve been training very well and I’m definitely looking forward to lowering that 7.04 PB.’ In the lead up to the Commonwealth Games, the world champion will also compete at the inaugural world relay championships in the Bahamas in May.
Fraser-Pryce is exactly the caliber of elite athlete the organisers of the Commonwealth Games want to attract to Glasgow. Sprinter Frankie Fredericks, who currently owns the 200m Commonwealth record, told BBC Sport ‘It would be nice to see Bolt compete in the Commonwealth Games.’
Fredericks won the 1994 Commonwealth 200m title in 19.97s in what was a world-class field, at a time when the Commonwealth Games was esteemed in a similar way to the Olympics. Fredericks stated ‘That record has been standing now for a very long time and it is about time they got their act together and break it.’ But it has been argued that there is less value in Commonwealth Games medals in recent years. Whilst the last sub10 winner of the men’s 100m was Kim Collins in 2002, the 200m title was won by Omar Brown in 20.47 in 2006, and by British sprinter Leon Baptiste in 20.45 in 2010. To put these times into perspective, 20.45s would have only placed 5th on the 2013 UK rankings, highlighting the importance of attracting the likes of Bolt and Fraser-Pryce to deliver a world-class field to spectators and fans.
