Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pocket Rocket

Shelly Ann Fraser has been running from poverty all her life. Now that she has there is still no slowing her down.

Raised in the violent inner-city community of Waterhouse, Fraser has been helped along the way by many people, who together put her on a path to success. Since she has been on that path she has been running faster and faster still.

Anyone who would have witnessed an MVP training camp at the national stadium east early last year, would have seen a tiny ‘pocket rocket’ hurtling out of the starting blocks ahead of  Olympic relay gold medallist Sherone Simpson.

 Simpson is no slouch. In 2006, a year before Fraser joined the Stephen Francis-led MVP track club based at the University of Technology, Simpson was the fastest woman on the planet in the 100 metres with eight of the top 10 times.

She also ran a personal best 10.82 seconds which at the time made her the second fastest Jamaican woman ever behind the legendary Merlene Joyce Ottey, who had clocked an astonishing 10.74 seconds a decade before.

So to see the anonymous little girl blast out of the blocks leaving Simpson behind in a cloud of invisible dust was to disbelieve that it was even possible for that to happen. Surely Simpson, in an effort to boost this little girl’s confidence, was deliberately allowing this upstart to get out ahead of her.

As it turns out there was little Simpson could do. True, she had been recovering from off-season knee surgery but still she had recovered enough to be preparing for the national championships to select a team to the Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Weeks later Fraser (10.85) would stun the entire nation finishing ahead of Simpson (10.87) but behind Kerron Stewart (10.80), another of this island’s great sprinters, to secure places on the team to China that would return with a record 11 medals, six of them gold.

Fraser returned with one of those gold medals, winning the 100 metre dash in a world leading 10.78 seconds and crowned herself Olympic champion. Suddenly, this obscure little girl had become a star.

Since then, however, Fraser and Stewart both of whom have since eclipsed Simpson and the beloved Veronica Campbell Brown as Jamaica’s premier sprinters have developed an interesting and intense rivalry. They have traded wins at Grand Prix meets and created fireworks whenever they meet on the track.

This season Stewart was the dominant sprinter, having eight of the top 15 fastest times in the world, including an amazing 10.75 seconds in Rome which made her the fifth fastest woman ever and moving past Fraser as Jamaica’s second fastest woman. Fraser was second in a fast 10.91s.

Fraser would, however, top Stewart once more when it really counted – in the finals of the World Championships in Berlin on Monday, August 17.  Using that rocket start that she used to leave Simpson behind, Fraser this time supplanted Ottey as Jamaica’s fastest woman in a world leading 10.73 seconds. Stewart, trying with all her might, finished a hair’s breadth behind tying her personal best of 10.75.

Defending Veronica Campbell was fourth in 10.95s more than 0.20 seconds behind. The title of Jamaica’s fastest ever woman has officially been passed on but it won’t rest easy. Not as long Stewart is around. The battle for fastest woman in Jamaica has now become the battle for the fastest woman in the world.

It seems only right that it should be happening in the crucible of world sprinting – Jamaica.

Tags: Leighton Levy