Who will be the top female athlete at the 2015 World Championships? Of course most observers will be backing defending World Champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who remains the firm favourite for the 100m title.
Not only will Fraser-Pryce be in China as the favourite, she will be coming with a lot of confidence, having run a World Leading mark of 10.74s this year, a feat she achieved at the Paris Diamond League meeting in July.
Does it mean that she just needs to show up and beat all other comers to the title? Definitely not, and she will certainly not make the mistake of underrating her competitors, knowing that many other athletes have already gone sub 10.9s this year and are also capable of mounting a serious challenge for the title.
Here are the world’s top five ranked female sprinters this year and our analysis of their chances to win the 100m title in Beijing
Tori Bowie:
With a Season’s Best of 10.81s, she is the fifth fastest woman in 2015, powering to victory in Eugene, Oregon where she won the US title. Meanwhile earlier in May, she ran 10.82s in the Diamond League meet, also in Eugene, finishing 3rd in a stacked field.
The former Long Jumper who recently converted to the sprints, will come into the Championships brewing with confidence knowing that she isn’t doing badly on the track. Considering that she just switched events last year, Bowie ended 2014 as the fastest female athlete with a Personal Best (PB) of 10.80s at the Monaco Meeting Areva.
She hasn’t won a major individual honour yet, but there is a feeling that it might not be long before she does. Since her progression from 2014, she has gone on to become a mainstay in the US team, and was part of the US contingent to the World Indoor Championships last year.
Although injuries cut short her impressive outing in the Diamond League last year, she made a good impression to make our top five breakthrough athletes of 2014. This season, she hasn’t done badly either after the first 12 meets.
Bowie will turn 25 on August 27, three days after the women’s 100m final, and she will be hoping to celebrate the occasion with a medal to cheer it with.
