World Athletics Championship (Moscow 2013): Women's 100m Preview.

As the heats of the Women's 100 meters kicks off on Sunday the 11th August 2013, all eyes will no doubt be on the Finals slated for Monday evening. To the keen Athletics lovers, this event no doubt is the star attraction in terms of excitement and expectation. Unlike the Mens' version which is a race between Bolt and the rest of the field, the Women's race is more keenly contested and result very unpredictable, especially this year.


The London 2012 Olympics final witnessed one of the best 100m races ever, as seven of the eight athletes clocked 11 seconds or under. The last placed athlete, Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare clocked an impressive 11.01 secs, a time good enough to win the Gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Despite missing three athletes from that 2012 Olympics Finals, this year's World Championships still boasts of the reigning Olympics Gold and Silver medal winners, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Carmelita Jeter respectively. The other three are Kelly Anne-Baptiste, Murielle Ahoure and Blessing Okagbare.

Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce remains the favourite with her fastest 100m ran by any woman this year at 10.77. She is followed closely by the ever-improving Blessing Okagbare who twice broke the African record last month with her 10.79s in London beating both Shelly Fraser and Kelly-Anne Baptiste in the process.

The American trio of Octavious Freeman, Alexandria Anderson and English Gardener are young athletes who have dipped under the 11seconds barrier this year and are good enough to medal as well.

 With no fewer than 10 athletes running sub-11secs this year, it is hard to predict who wins the race come Monday evening as any of the finalists should be good enough to win it. The first business is qualifying from the heats to the finals and in the finals, anything can happen.
Baring any accident though, these eight athletes mentioned above should be the Finalists but that is not to say that the others are just there to make up the number. As a matter of fact, Bulgarian Ivet Lalova, Schilonie Calvert and perhaps the Jamaican Keron Stewart could spring a surprise or two to qualify for the finals.

In terms of a realistic medal chance, the stand out athletes remain Fraser-Pryce, Okagbare, Jeter and Gradener.
Fraser-Pryce as the Olympic Champion will no doubt want to add the World's title to her collection and seeing how well she's run this year, it would be foolish to best against her. Same can't be said of the reigning World Champion Jeter, as injury has restricted her to few races this year and her season's best of 10.93s has been bettered by most of the athletes mentioned above. But you don't expect her to roll over and give up her title without a fight.
Kelly Anne Baptiste is one consistent performer on the World stage who will also like to go better than her Bronze medal finish of 2 years ago. She recently improved her personal best to 10.83s, a time which if she could replicate in Moscow, could give her a podium finish.

And finally, the ever-smiling young Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare.  At the moment, she's one of the hottest on the circuit. Running faster and flying higher and farther than ever(she's a very good long jumper as well). Her confidence is sky high at the moment given the calibre of the field she destroyed in that African record-breaking race in London last month. The major worry about this girl is her slow start. But what she lacks in start, she makes up for in abundance between the 70meteres to the finish line. If she gets a good start and keeps up with the rest by the 60m mark, she could win the race... Her form and strength stands her in good stead to medal in this championship, and if she succeeds in getting a podium finish, that would be a first for an African woman in the sprints.

By the look of things, this could be the first 100m finals where all eight athletes run a sub-11.....It is very possible with the field assembled this year.