PARIS — Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah won the 100 meters in 10.72 seconds at the Diamond League meeting in Paris without in-form Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to rival her on Saturday.
Thompson-Herah quickly raced clear with a legal tailwind at the Charlety Stadium to finish 0.25 ahead of fellow Jamaican Shericka Jackson, the Olympic bronze medalist.
The winning time would have been fast enough for Thompson-Herah to take Olympic gold in Tokyo — and is the 25th-fastest all-time — yet is just the eighth best of this standout season.
Last weekend, Thompson ran the second-fastest women’s 100 in history — 10.54 at Eugene, Oregon — and Fraser-Pryce clocked 10.60 on Thursday to win their duel in Lausanne, Switzerland, and rise to No. 3 all-time.
Citing fatigue on Friday, the 34-year-old Fraser-Pryce opted out of running in Paris. Their rivalry over 100 should resume in Zurich at the Sept. 8-9 Diamond League finals.
“I know everybody is thinking I am targeting the world record,” Thompson-Herah said Saturday. “I know it is close but for this season I am already super happy.”
She retained her 100 title in Tokyo with a 10.61 run that took the Olympic record from Florence Griffith-Joyner, whose 10.49 mark set in 1988 looked uncatchable until this season.
In a tight men’s 200 in Paris, Americans Fred Kerley and Kenny Bednarek both timed 19.79. Kerley, the Olympic silver medalist at 100, got the win, lowering his personal-best time by 0.11 ahead of 200 silver medalist Bednarek.
Olympic champions Armand Duplantis and Hansle Parchment won their events after losing in Lausanne less than two days earlier.
Duplantis cleared 6.01 meters in the pole vault before coming up short in three attempts at raising his own world record to 6.19.
“I felt like it was really important for me to come back and try to get into the victory mode again, to try to get over the 6 meters,” Duplantis said.
Parchment set his season-best time of 13.03 to win the 110 hurdles.
Olympic 400 silver medalist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic made it back-to-back wins within 48 hours timing 50.12, with American great Allyson Felix finishing third as she did in Tokyo.
In the women’s high jump, Olympic silver medalist Nicola McDermott finally defeated Mariya Lasitskene, who won in Tokyo and Lausanne, on a countback after both cleared 1.98 meters.
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