The Albany Gazette - Fraser-Pryce ready to shake school sports day

The Jamaican sprint star, fresh from a fifth world 100m title in Oregon, is a rarity in track and field in that she competes as a mum.

Now 35, Fraser-Pryce's son Zyon is five and ready to start primary school.

And she warned Thursday that should a call come in for parents to compete at the school's sports day she'd be there in a flash, lending some hard-nosed competition for the sack race or egg-and-spoon.

"I go home after this meet as I have an orientation with him for his new school," Fraser-Pryce said of Zyon.

"I'm definitely looking forward to being in a new environment for him with school. I'll be able to relax at home!

"I'm also getting a lot of questions: 'Are you excited about sports day?' Yes I am. 'Are you going to run for us?' Yes I am," Fraser-Pryce said ahead of Friday's Diamond League meet in Brussels.

The Jamaican has been in prime form this season, running the 100m six times under 10.70 seconds.

But a hamstring contraction saw her skip last week's Diamond League meet in Lausanne amid talk of a genuine attempt on Florence Griffith-Joyner's world record of 10.49sec set back in 1988.

"It's strange at this time of the season to have a contraction in your hamstring," she acknowledged.

"I think it should work out well. It's not 100%, but I'm optimistic."

Fraser-Pryce was also quick to play down any talk of retirement.

"The dream is definitely to go to Paris 2024 (for the Olympics), but at the same time I have to trust my body and listen to my body as well to make sure that each year I assess myself and see where I am at and how I'm feeling," she said.

"At this time I'm still very passionate about what I'm doing and I'm still hungry and I still think there's more to give.

"As long as those things are working for me and that's the state of mind I'm in, it's not yet (retirement)."

Fraser-Pryce added: "I have consistently run 10.6 and being able to do that at various points in the season... you know 10.5 is definitely possible to do."

The two-time Olympic 100m champion, standing just 1.52m (5ft 0in) tall, put her longevity on the track down to "relaxation, definitely key to sprinting fast".

"At this point of my career, I'm a lot more relaxed and am enjoying the atmosphere, the competition," she said.

"Once you work hard and you're still passionate about what you want to do, you just have to come out, have fun.

"And when you're relaxed you definitely run better than you thought you could.

(K.Müller--BBZ)