Shelly revs up for 200m

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

Olympic and World 100m champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, has set her sights on participating in the 200m at this year's IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, Korea.

Fraser-Pryce, who has a personal best of 22.15 seconds in the event, has been racking up her 200m miles this season and will once again line up in the half-lap event on June 11 at the Adidas Grand Prix Diamond League meet in New York, in what will be her third serious 200m run already this season.

However, despite her intentions, Fraser-Pryce was quick to point out that a final decision on whether or not she runs the 200m in Daegu will only be made, of course if she qualifies for the event at next month's Supreme Ventures Limited/Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA)National Senior Championships and after further consultation with her coach, Stephen Francis.

"I would definitely want to do that (run the 200m at the World Championships) once me and my coach sit down and talk about what we are going to do. We have been talking about whether or not I'll be doubling this year, (but) we have not reached a conclusion ... but we'll definitely be doing the 200m at trials," said Fraser-Pryce, who has already posted 22.69 this season.

"I am right where I'm supposed to be in terms of how I have been doing in training and the expectations of my coach. Once I execute a race the way he tells me to then I should be right on target to run some superb times in the 100m and 200m, as I look forward to doing a lot more 200m this season and being good at it," she added. "I'm eager and ready to learn new strategies and just have fun with it for this year."

Improving her strength

Besides not wanting to limit her potential in the sport, Fraser-Pryce, who won her Olympic and world 100m titles with personal best times of 10.78 and 10.73, respectively, is also using her somewhat new-found love for the half-lap event as a base to improve her strength in her pet event - the 100m - and as a result improve her less-than-perfect final 30m in the shorter sprint.

"I don't want to just be seen as a 100m runner, but I also want to be seen as a 200m runner and a good one. I sat down and I realised that if I can run the 100m in 10.73 seconds, I definitely can run a good time in the 200m. All I have to do is apply myself and think about it positively, go out there and have fun with it. So far, I am enjoying every moment of it," Fraser-Pryce noted.

It's quite a turnaround for the 24-year-old, who last year this time, absolutely resented the 200m.

"There were a lot of things that deterred me from running the 200m, but this year I said to myself that the 200m will make me stronger for the 100m, so I started to focus on it and got myself in the right frame of mind for it from in the off-season," Fraser-Pryce laughed.

"Yes, a year ago I hated the 200m. I didn't like it one bit but this year I've been into this and I wanted to do a lot more things in track," she added.

Defending 200m world champion and world leader, at press time, Allyson Felix (22.38), along with 100m specialist Carmelita Jeter, club mate and compatriot Sherone Simpson, along with Bianca Knight - the third fastest so far this year with 22.64 - will all be asking questions of the determined Fraser-Pryce when they all renew acquaintances in New York.

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