Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won’t race 200m at World Athletics Championships

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will not race in the 200m at the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Budapest. The 36-year-old Jamaican sprinting sensation and reigning 100m world champion was poised to compete for gold in three events in the Hungarian capital later this month, but is entered only in the 100m and the 4x100m relay events.

Fraser-Pryce qualified for the 200m at the World Althetics Championships after placing second in the event at the Jamaican championships. However, on the heels of her qualifying performance, she was very open about her reluctance to take on the 200m in Budepest.  “The Lord would have to come and touch me and say, ‘Wake up, we have the 200m to run,” was her reaction to the prospect of her competing in the event in Budapest, trackalerts.com reports.

This wasn’t the first signal from Fraser-Pryce that her intention would be to focus on the 100m. Olympics.com reports the sprinter expressed her intentions earlier in the year: “Last year I said that was it,” said Fraser-Pryce. “And it may possibly be it for me for real and I’ll just focus on the 100m. The double is very hard. It is strenous. The workload that you need to do it is definitely hard.”

This is hardly the first time she has sidestepped competition in the 200m to concentrate on the shorter distance. Fraser-Pryce took silver in the 200m at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore., behind fellow Jamaican Shericka Jackson, but she skipped the 200m at her last two appearances at the World Athletics Championships in 2015 and 2019.

Her silver last year is part of a stellar history Fraser-Pryce has had in the 200m, which also includes her silver in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and gold in the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow.

But she has outshined those with her accomplishments in the 100m.  Fraser-Pryce’s has five 100m titles, just one short of Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergey Bubka’s record for world titles in one individual event. She currently ranks fourth in the world in the 100m (10.82), behind Jackson (10.65), American Sha’Carri Richardson (10.71) and Ivory Coast runner Marie-Josée Ta Lou (10.75).

Fraser-Pryce’s shot at her sixth world title in the 100m starts with first-round heats at the World Athletics Championships on Aug. 20.