Sprint queens: The race to the women's 100m title
The women’s 100m is set to be one of the most anticipated track events at this year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, featuring a star-studded cast of leading ladies looking to usurp the reigning champion of her crown.
Athletics
The build-up to the Games has already dished up dramatic plot twists with young pretenders looking to challenge the status quo.
We look at some of the top contenders for what is expected to be one of the most fiercely contested titles at Tokyo 2020.
The Queen without the crown
If anyone needed reminding, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce recently demonstrated why she is considered the greatest female sprinter of her generation.
The Jamaican superstar rolled back the years, becoming the fastest women alive and the second-fastest female 100m sprinter of all time when she clocked an incredible 10.63 seconds (1.3m/s) in Kingston, Jamaica, on 5 June.
The two-time Olympic champion and nine-time world gold medallist sent out the strongest possible warning that she has some unfinished business at the Games.
The 34-year-old chopped 0.07s off the personal best and the Jamaican record she posted in 2012 to launch herself into the top contender list.
Adding to her legend, Fraser-Pryce's time is the fastest in three decades, eclipsed only by Florence Griffith-Joyner's three best times, including the world record of 10.49 from 1988.
Fraser-Pryce has her sights set on becoming the most accomplished women's 100m sprinter at the Olympic Games. The mother of one aims to become the first woman to win three Olympic 100m gold medals.
She won her first Olympic title almost a decade-and-a-half ago at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games when she was just 22 years old.
Fraser-Pryce relinquished her crown to compatriot Elaine Thompson-Herah but highlighted her class in Doha in 2019 to win her fourth 100m world title.
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The champion
Elaine Thompson-Herah announced herself as the heir to Fraser-Pryce's throne at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and punctuated Jamaica's dominance in the short sprint events.
She may not have reached the same lofty heights as her compatriot but is etching out an equally impressive career on the track.
Thompson-Herah went into the Rio Games with the world 200m silver medal highlighting her sprint credentials. But her stock shot through the roof, becoming the first female athlete since Griffith-Joyner at Seoul 1988 to win the 100-200m double at the Olympic Games.
To add further credence to her performance, Thompson-Herah had to beat reigning champion and training partner Fraser-Pryce en route to her maiden Olympic 100m title. Thompson-Herah produced a scintillating run bursting over the line in a time of 10.71, which was 0.12 ahead of US sprinter Tori Bowie in second place, giving Jamaica its third consecutive Olympic gold in the women's 100m.
She beat the reigning world champion, Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands, in the 200m, becoming the first Jamaican to win the double at the Games.
Thompson-Herah has been plagued with injury since her Olympic breakthrough missing out on the podium at the 2017 and 2019 world championships.
She reminded the world of her pedigree, clocking the fastest time in 2020, winning the Rome Diamond League in 10.85.
Going into the Tokyo 2020 Games, Thompson-Herah has her sights on defending her titles and adding the 4x100m title for a rare golden treble. She came painstakingly close to achieving that feat in Rio 2016, with the Jamaican quartet finishing as runners-up in the relay final.
Rising in the ranks
Great Britain's Dina Asher-Smith has slowly but surely been working her way up in the global sprinting ranks since winning the 2014 world junior 100m title in Eugene, Oregan.
The 25-year-old has built a strong foundation as a member of Great Britain's 4x100m relay team, winning bronze and silver at the Moscow 2013 and London 2017 World Championships.
She finished in a creditable fifth place in the 200m final on her debut at the Rio Olympic Games and went away with the bronze medal in the 4x100m relay.
Asher-Smith finally found her individual breakthrough in 2018 when she became the first British woman to win the sprint treble at a major championship at the European Championships in Berlin.
Highlighting her class, she blitzed to victory in the 200m final at the 2019 Doha World Championships setting a new British record of 21.88 seconds. She also demonstrated her abilities over the short-sprint event finishing second behind Fraser-Pryce in the 100m final for an impressive sprint double.
Asher-Smith struck an early psychological blow beating Fraser-Pryce at the Diamond League opener at a cold and wet Gatesehead in May.
Conditions in Tokyo should be considerably better and the racing even hotter between the world's fastest women.
Flying the flag for Africa
Cote d’Ivoire's Marie-Josée Ta Lou and Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare will be flying the flag for Africa looking to break new ground for the continent. No African woman has won the 100m or 200m at the Olympics or world athletics championships.
Okagbare, who has already earned Olympic silverware with her long jump silver medal from Beijing 2008, is in superb form and is among the top contenders for a shot at the podium.
The versatile Okagbare ran a wind-assisted 10.63 (2.7m/s) at the Nigerian trials in June and boasts a season’s best of 10.89 in Hungary.
Ta Lou is perhaps Africa’s biggest hope for its first Olympic gold medal, with the Ivorian missing out on the podium in Rio 2016 in both the 100m and 200m by the narrowest of margins finishing fourth in the finals.
She has proven her herself as a championship racer, winning silver in the 100m and 200m at the world championships in London in 2017 and the 100m bronze in Doha in 2019.
The 32-year-old Ta Lou came into the Games with a season’s best of 10.86, making her one of the five fastest sprinters this year.
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