Same time but Paris 10.67 was better – Walcott

The time was same as in her last race but coach Reynaldo Walcott reckons the Paris meet record by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce last Saturday was better than her 10.67 seconds in Nairobi, Kenya on May 7.

Walcott, who coached Fraser-Pryce to the Olympic 100 metres silver and personal bests of 10.60 and 21.79 seconds, said yesterday that her technical execution in Paris was impressive.

“I saw focus. I saw relaxation but of a different kind because I think she was relaxed in focusing on what she had to do. But I would agree that there is still room to improve,” he said responding to a suggestion that the four-time World 100m champion could have relaxed a little more at the end of the Paris race.

“Ironically, the time is exactly the same. Sometimes time doesn’t tell it all but I think that race was an improvement over the first one in terms of what she did,” Walcott submitted. “But, you know, you can do your best execution but what you can’t control is how much power your legs are going to produce today, because, if you try your hardest, how fast are your arms going to swing today? But in terms of the stuff that she could control, for example, did I swing my hands all the way through, was my knee all the way up for all the sections where it should have been? Those things you can control, she did a better job of that,” he said.

Nairobi is 1,600 metres above sea level with the thinner air aiding sprinters. By comparison, Paris is essentially at sea level.

In any case, Fraser-Pryce heads the world and national performance list with compatriot double-double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson Herah second at 10.79. Olympic bronze medallist Shericka Jackson, Kevona Davis, Natalliah Whyte, Kemba Nelson and Olympic relay gold medallist Brianna Williams have all broken 11 seconds this year.

In the meantime, Walcott and Fraser-Pryce will tinker with technical aspects of her Paris performance in pursuit of even better races.

“So there are some other stuff now that we can take back and say ‘Okay, you need to be working at this’, but at least they are what I consider to be smaller stuff versus what we worked on from the last race to this one,” Walcott said.

Jackson leads the Jamaica performance list in the 200 metres at 21.91 seconds.

As the winner of the 100m at the 2019 World Championships, Fraser-Pryce doesn’t need to run that event at the Nationals, as that victory earned her the defending champion’s wild card. However, when Walcott was asked about her competitive schedule for this week, he said, “She definitely will double this weekend.”

Hubert Lawrence