When Elaine Thompson comes out of the call room to compete in the women’s 100m at the 2017 World Championships in London, the collective question on the lips of Athletics fans will be “Can anyone really stop her from claiming the title?”
Barring any unforeseen glitch, Thompson comes to London as the installed pre-Championship favourite, and many won’t even bat an eyelid to stake a bet on her winning anything but GOLD.
However, things can swiftly happen in Sports and even when you think you have it all figured out, a little mistake can see a whole season’s hard work blown away in eleven seconds or less. A point in case is Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce who was the firm favourite going into the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, but eventually finished 4th.
Not that we foresee such a scenario for Thompson; however, it’s not cast in stone that she will win. There are other spoilers to this trailer capable of making their way to the 100m throne.
Tori Bowie who in 2015 won Bronze in Beijing, followed it up with Silver in Brazil; who knows if GOLD is the next gong in the sequence for her? The American seems to be moving with a yearly progression: 2015 (Bronze), 2016 (Silver), 2017 (GOLD)?
Although Bowie has only gone under 11s just once this season, clocking 10.90s at the US Trials in Sacramento, she is by all means a Championship athlete and tends to produce her best on the biggest occasions.
Then there’s the budding Marie Josee Ta Lou who has now become a force to be reckoned with since Rio where she finished 4th the 100m and 200m. Ta Lou posted a Season’s Best (SB) of 10.90s in Rabat where she stayed with Thompson all through their 100m race, only to be eluded by the Jamaican’s longer strides. She would fancy her chances coming up against Thompson in London.
The likes of Dafne Schippers who despite not having the best starts but can boast of strong finishes, cannot be overlooked. Being with Thompson in the first 50m is one thing; where she delivers the killer punch is her finishing as she breezes past her competitors to cross the finishing line, and taller athletes like Schippers and Bowie will be hoping to match her strides, and then overtake.
That said, there’s a reason why Thompson has decided not to double in London, literally ‘putting all her eggs in the 100m basket’. This is a brave move that was premised on the advice of her coach, the same coach who made her run just the 200m in 2015, and is also responsible for current prowess. So will she rue this decision if she doesn’t win the 100m?
Thompson knows she’s presently the best in the 100m, and the stats back her up, so in order not to leave London with a dour demeanor, she will be deploying all her arsenal in this event.
Of the ten fastest times this year, Thompson boasts of three (in fact she ran the top two fastest times in 2017), and those wins were achieved across different time zones and continents.
To further underline her credentials this season, Thompson is the World Leader with a time of 10.71s which helped her retain the Jamaican title. Her time was just one hundredth of a second away from her Personal Best (PB) of 10.70s achieved last year, also in Kingston.
Earlier this season in Shanghai, Thompson raced to a then SB of 10.78s, making her the only woman so far to run below 10.80s in 2017. The closest athlete to her this year is Michelle-Lee Ahye who won the Trinidad & Tobago title in 10.83s.
Really, it’s hard to imagine Thompson not winning the 100m title, especially when we factor in the fact that she remains undefeated this year.
Jamaica has no doubt found a successor to Fraser-Pryce in Thompson, who has continued to grow in leaps and bounds since winning Silver in women’s 200m in 21.66s.
Fraser-Pryce won the 100m title then with a time of 10.76s, which indicates that anyone taking over the mantle this time around would have to run a time within the 10.70s range.
If all goes according to plan for Thompson, she could be on course to take Fraser-Pryce’s title, and surely the latter will be rooting for her as she watches whilst preparing to put to bed.
