Fraser-Pryce wins in Doha as anticipation for the Olympics builds

The last Diamond League events of the track season are coming towards their conclusion as anticipation for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics starts to mount.

This is a critical time for athletes, as they attempt to build up towards their peak fitness, while desperately avoiding injury ahead of the world’s grandest sporting event.

For those watching on, this is a chance to survey the field, assessing the form of the contenders, and start making predictions before the preparations for Japan really begin.

Over the past couple of weeks, two meets have been taking place in starkly different conditions, with the event that has been dominating the headlines being the women’s 100m.

Last week, in Gateshead, as the rain poured down and the wind whipped around the competitors, Dina Asher-Smith of Team GB came through a tough field to win the race with a time 11.35 seconds. Although the time on paper is not too impressive, a sub-11 second time was virtually impossible in the conditions.

What was important for Asher-Smith was that she won the race, despite being up against some of the fastest runners in the sport. The fastest women this year, the USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson, who has clocked a time of 10.72, came in second, while Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou were also left trailing in Asher-Smith’s wake.

This is an important landmark for Asher-Smith, returning after a 2020 spent improving her conditioning and technique, who will look to pick up from where she left off in the summer, having won silver in the 100m and gold in the 200 in the 2019 World Championships.

Over the weekend, Fraser-Pryce, despite the fact she is now 34 and coming towards the end of her career, once again proved her credentials, winning in an impressive time of 10.84 seconds in a more temperate climate in Doha.

Richardson was forced to withdraw prior to the race, but Fraser Pryce, the current world champion, having beaten Asher-Smith in 2019, still had to beat Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare, who came in second with a time of 10.90.

The battle between these four women will certainly be one to watch this summer

These races provided an indicator of just how competitive the women’s sprint field will be in the Olympics this summer. Richardson appears to be the new star of the sport, and will surely be the favourite in Tokyo, but over these two events Asher-Smith and Fraser-Pryce have proven that they cannot be discounted.

Not present at these two events was also current Olympic champion, the Jamaican Elaine Thompson, who has started to build up her own form prior to the Olympics, and is the second-fastest woman this year, having clocked a time of 10.78. The battle between these four women will certainly be one to watch this summer.

Another point of interest over these two events has been the plight of Adam Gemili, who has struggled to compete with the very best in the 200m, coming in in sixth in both Gateshead and Doha, losing out to American Kenneth Bednarek, who won both races. He appears to have some way to go to replicate his feats in Rio in 2016, where he finished only just outside of the podium positions.

Laura Muir, Britain’s hope in the 1500m, came through with an impressive time of 4:03.75 in Gateshead, although a relatively weak field meaning that she will certainly face tougher tests in Tokyo, with Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon missing from the event.

However, what is for sure that the anticipation is building ahead of what has been a long-overdue Olympics, as the world’s most supreme athletes battle it out for that precious gold medal.