Shelly Ann Frazer-Pryce Joins Elite Company

[Karl]

SHELLY ANN FRAZER-PRYCE JOINS ELITE COMPANY

Before last Sunday only seven women belonged to the sub-seven-second club in the 60-metre sprint. Shelly Ann-Frazer Pryce became member number eight. The reigning Olympic and World Champion joined an even more elite club of only two female athletes who have held the 60m, 100m and 200m World titles, joining her countrywoman Veronica Campbell-Brown who prior to Sunday was alone in that category.

6.98 seconds makes Fraser – Pryce the fastest woman in the world today, the second fastest Jamaican woman ever over the distance. What is amazing is that she could have gone even faster. Those with keen eyes know that had she not abandoned her form a bit and drifted across her lane, she could very well have ended that final in Sopot, Poland on Sunday, March 9, not only snatching the world title but also the title as fastest Jamaican ever. However, it was not to be and so Merlene Ottey’s record of 6.96 still stands.

http://gleanerblogs.com/sports/?p=2397

[Karl]

Ova suh - Caribbean T&F Forum there was continuation of the

debate on Klas FM's Orville Higgins - Who is our greatest Female T&F athlete...Merlene Ottey, VCB or "The Pocket Rocket?

Who is your choice?

Forget the reference to Milton Ottey...perhaps this link - http://www.bing.com/search?q=wikiped...TR&pc=HPDTDFJS - gives a hint on who gets my vote?

---

VCB - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_Campbell-Brown

Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelly-Ann_Fraser-Pryce

[Gamma]

this is over a career and so the quality of medals that SFP and VCB have collected is more impressive than merlene's however, merlene was dealing with flo jo and gail devers from the al joyner camp and latterly marion jones...that must be taken into consideration

[Islandman]

It certainly should be but even when I factor in all that I think SAFs achievements have surpassed Merlene, and VCB is at least equal.

My main knock against Merlene is that she just never could produce her outstanding times at major championships. Had she done that with any consistency she would have beaten the druggists more often than not.

[Gamma]

No man dem days deh di druggist dem never even deh pon cycle dat was di norm and dem dope up if di big meet dem. drug testing was either primitive or non existent! Consider Flo Jo's records?

SFP's achievements are exceptional though and i would want to tend to agree with you that she has surpassed Merlene all things considered

[myYout]

Merelene virtually carry jamaica athletics from 1980 - 1996, an against all di odds an dem was great.

[Jangle]

Agreed wholeheartedly Gamma. Those days, you never heard about the eventual big meet winners until they got there. Merlene was working the circuits for months to make a dollar and blazing a trail up to the majors only to be beaten by an unknown.

[Islandman]

Yes but she NEVER came close to her best times at the big meets. That is my point. Nobody could come close to Flo Jo but at most of the championship meets Merlenes finals times were sub-par for her. Thats why all the theories about not being able to run the rounds , etc were raised.

Go check her championship times vs her PRs or even her SRs and you will see what I mean. SAF and VCB in her prime were always peaking at the big meets.
Even Grace Jackson and Juliet Cuthbert got their medals by running PRs or near PRs at the Olympics. Merlene just never did that.

None of that takes away from her outstanding achievements otherwise but to me if you can't produce your best when it matters most that must be a strike against you in a GOAT discussion.

[Jangle]

Good point

[Karl]

It certainly should be but even when I factor in all that I think SAFs achievements have surpassed Merlene, and VCB is at least equal.

My main knock against Merlene is that she just never could produce her outstanding times at major championships. Had she done that with any consistency she would have beaten the druggists more often than not.

Never?
Have you forgotten 2 Gold medals & World Records at major championships?

btw - Those World Records still stand.
60M at a World Indoor Champs & 200M at another World Indoor Champs.

Then there was Merlene's come from behind 4 x 100M anchor leg that had Jamaicans world-wide jumping for joy. That Championship Gold Medal run was at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

...the matter of circumstances under which the ladies performed I think must also be considered. Shelly-Ann is now performing in an era where equipment and track surfaces are 'faster'. The weight of her spikes...the quality preparation - guidance, training & nutritional supplements - 'the
science of making an elite sprinter' is now far advanced.

VCB spans both eras...the earlier period of what can be termed inferior equipment, training methods and running track and the present era of cutting edge equipment, training methods and running tracks.

Yup! The Queen it is and her gold medal haul would have been so much larger if she never had so many 'souped up' rivals.

Merlene mi seh!!! ...although "The Pocket Rocket" may yet surpass her.

For all of the above - It is awesome that we have three ladies who have landed smack dab in any discussion on greatest of female sprinters. Big dem hup!

[Karl]

Yes but she NEVER came close to her best times at the big meets. That is my point. Nobody could come close to Flo Jo but at most of the championship meets Merlenes finals times were sub-par for her. Thats why all the theories about not being able to run the rounds , etc were raised.

Go check her championship times vs her PRs or even her SRs and you will see what I mean. SAF and VCB in her prime were always peaking at the big meets.
Even Grace Jackson and Juliet Cuthbert got their medals by running PRs or near PRs at the Olympics. Merlene just never did that.

None of that takes away from her outstanding achievements otherwise but to me if you can't produce your best when it matters most that must be a strike against you in a GOAT discussion.

That was the perception and it was fired by the media but the facts are different....or at the least mixed. It is far from reality that claim that Merlene never dropped PBs at big meets...and again I point you to her earliest big meets and her later World Records.

btw - Just to underline - Her World Record times have not been 'caught' - (naturally they are, after all, World Records) - by either VCB or Shelly-Ann.

Aside: In the article I referenced the author added a stoop to subterfuge by suggesting that as Shelly-Ann drifted around and her form deteriorated in her 60M race she could have run faster...thereby within context of the article slipping in the subliminal message that Merlene performed without any possible thought of also 'could have run faster but for not being technically at the top of her game' and therefore Shelly-Ann is/was faster/better (could have taken Merlene's World Record)'?

[Karl]

Committed 2 'boo-boos'!

Oooops!
...just checked and discovered that Merlene does not hold the 60M World Record...and her 200M Indoor World Record was not achieved at a World Indoor Championship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeting_Pas_de_Calais).

My apologies!

Message to self be cautious in use of memory.

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Women

Updated March 2014.


1
6.92 Irina Privalova Russia 11 February 1993 Madrid

2
6.95 Gail Devers United States 12 March 1993 Toronto
Marion Jones United States 7 March 1998 Maebashi

4
6.96 Merlene Ottey Jamaica 14 February 1992 Madrid
Ekaterini Thanou Greece 7 March 1999 Maebashi

6
6.97 Laverne Jones-Ferrette United States Virgin Islands 6 February 2010 Stuttgart

7
6.98 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Jamaica 9 March 2014 Sopot [8]

8
6.99 Murielle Ahoure Ivory Coast 16 February 2013 Birmingham [9]

9
7.00 Nelli Cooman Netherlands 23 February 1986 Madrid
Veronica Campbell-Brown Jamaica 14 March 2010 Doha

11
7.01 Savatheda Fynes Bahamas 7 March 1999 Maebashi
Me'Lisa Barber United States 10 March 2006 Moscow