Fraser-Pryce sets sights on attaining greatness

[May 16, 2015]  By Ian Chadband
 
 SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the world's fastest woman, says she is looking forward to one day being lauded as "one of the greatest" athletes in history.

The double Olympic champion reckoned there was much more to come in her illustrious career as she outlined her ambitions on the eve of her first 100 meters of the year at Shanghai's Diamond League meeting on Sunday.

The diminutive Jamaican admitted she was unlikely to try to repeat her golden 100/200 meters double of the Moscow world championships when she returns to China later in the summer.

At this stage, she said, it was likely that she would aim only to successfully defend her world 100 meters crown in Beijing.

Fraser-Pryce suffered a difficult, injury-hit year in 2014 but sounded confident following her season-opening victory over 200m in Kingston last weekend, that she could get back to the form of her double-golden campaign of 2013.
 

Yet because she knows "how it's very hard on the body" to run the 100m and 200m at a single championships, she says that she may only run the shorter distance in Beijing.

"Next year is the Olympic Games so you want to make sure your body is right there," the 28-year-old told reporters, looking forward to Rio de Janeiro where both she and compatriot Usain Bolt could become the first athletes ever to achieve the 100m 'threepeat'.

"I just believe there's more I can do in the sprints. I'm yearning to surpass my best of 10.7 seconds and that's one reason I’m focusing on the 100 more.

"Running is a passion and I believe there’s much more in store and I’m looking forward to becoming one of the greatest. Yes, that would be nice.

"I've always said I'm so blessed to have won my championships from when I was very young, just 21, when a lot of athletes are still chasing that gold medal at 30, 31. Anything else I achieve now is all just icing on the cake."

For starters, Fraser-Pryce, who served a six-month doping ban for failing a test at this Shanghai meeting in 2010, faces what she calls "a loaded" field on Sunday, featuring six sub-11 sec sprinters headed by compatriot Veronica Campbell-Brown and last year’s number one, American Tori Bowie.

(Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)

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