EUGENE, Oregon — All four Jamaican women, led by four-time champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, made safe passage through to tomorrow’s semi-finals of the women’s 100m after Saturday’s opening round at the World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Fraser-Pryce (10.87 seconds-0.7m/s), Olympic champion Elaine Thompson (11.15 seconds-0.2m/s), national champion Shericka Jackson (11.02 seconds-0.7m/s), and Kemba Nelson (11.10 seconds-0.8m/s) were all automatic qualifiers for the semi-finals set to run at 5:33 pm local time.

Jackson, who was celebrating her 28th birthday yesterday, and Thompson-Herah, who along with Fraser-Pryce won their races, did not stop to talk with reporters after their races on Saturday, heading directly to the cool down area.

Fraser-Pryce, who won the World Championships 100m gold medals in 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2019, ran the second-fastest time in the round to Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith and said she has to go back and watch the tape as she was not able to judge her execution of the race.

“I was trying to execute as easy and as slow as possible…it felt OK but I have to go back and look at the start because from my angle, I could not see it.”

The World leader with 10.67 seconds, who sported a long purple wig, said the first round is usually the most difficult.

“The first rounds are usually the hardest as you have to mentally go out and execute. The anticipation, anxiety — everything that happens in the first round are usually there so you try to get that out of the way and once you get that out of the way, everything should pretty much fall in place,” said Fraser-Pryce.

Asked about the pressures of being the world leader coming into the championships, she respnded: “I have been doing this for a couple of years [so] I know what championships are like, I know what finals are like, so for me you just make sure that you give yourself the best possible chance and focus on your own race and execute your own race, and everything will fall into place.”

Nelson, who attended the University of Oregon for two years and got a loud cheer when she was introduced, got off to a fast start but ended up third and said afterwards, “The start was there but I don’t think I transitioned very well. It did not set me up for the latter part of the race, top three, and the nerves are gone so looking for better things in the next round.”

It has been a long season for the NCAA runner-up and Pac-12 sprint double champion who ran three straight sub-11.00-second times at the national trials, including her personal best 10.88 seconds in the final. When asked how many more fast races she believes she has left, she responded, “We will have to wait and see tomorrow what is left but but I always give it my all.”

— Paul Reid