Shelly-Ann ready for 100m battle with Okagbare, Campbell others

Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce she is ready for Blessing Okagbare’s challenge at the Shanghai leg of the IAAF Diamond League, which holds on Sunday.

The triple world champion will also take on her compatriot, Veronica Campbell-Brown, in a mouth-watering 100m clash in a field containing no fewer than six women who have run the sprint in under 11 seconds.

Okagbare claimed last year’s Shanghai 200 metres honour with a meeting record when Fraser-Pryce pulled out at the last minute due to injury. And now without the long jump to distract her this year, Okagbare will be hoping for another sprint triumph over her Jamaican rivals.

Fraser-Pryce’s goal is to get back on track after an injury-hampered campaign in 2014. The Olympic champion will want to put on a strong display in her first 100m of the year as she builds towards her world title defence in Beijing this August.

Campbell-Brown will have her own ideas, though. The former world and Olympic champion finished fifth over 200m 12 months ago but went on to clinch the Diamond Race 100m trophy in Zurich and added another late-season win at the IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakech. She’s already on form in 2015 having run 11.04 in Rio last month before anchoring Jamaica to gold at the IAAF World Relays in Nassau.

Michelle-Lee Ahye has also started 2015 with a bang. The Trinidad and Tobago athlete was the surprise package last year, winning Diamond League contests in Lausanne and Glasgow and dipping below 11 three times in three races during a purple patch last June. The 23-year-old has gone sub-11 twice this year already and will be looking to take some senior scalps again.

The US challenge is headed by Tori Bowie, whose 10.80 victory in Monaco last July made her the quickest woman in the world in 2014, while she also enjoyed impressive DL wins in Rome and New York.

Muna Lee is the other US sprinter out to knock the Caribbeans off their perch, while Asian Games champion, Wei Yongli, flies the flag for China.