BUDAPEST, Hungary — After sporting a flame-coloured wig which she likened to “fire at the end of the rockets”, reigning women’s 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce played down its significance following Sunday’s first round of the event at the World Athletics Championships.

“Orange, it’s just something that I liked — fire at the end of the rockets and a little pink Barbie at the end,” she said after her heat at National Athletics Centre in Budapest.

She hastened to add she was “not sending any messages” and might wear a different colour wig for Monday’s semi-finals and final, when the tempo is expected to be even more intense.

Fraser-Pryce said she was satisfied with the first-round performance.

“I got the first round out of the way. The first round is usually a little bit, you know, mix and match but I think I was able to have a good one.

“Hopefully it was [as] technically sound as my coach would have liked and we [can] just build on that and look forward to the semi-finals and take it from there.”

The five-time champion said while her season has been “a challenging one” she embraces it.

“It’s nothing that I am not used to and, for me, I guess I’m a warrior; I love the challenges and I show up for them. You know things are not always gonna be 100, and you just have to find the strength to push through and not kill yourself but to push through and see what can come of that,” she explained.

She said her two 100m races after the national championships helped a lot. “Just to kind of show me that nothing beats the real thing. You know you can practise, practise, practise, but until you go in a race where you actually simulate what you’ve been practising, you won’t know where you’re at.

“I think that really kind of showed me that: ‘Okay then, I needed a little bit of work to get my stars together,’ and that’s because I haven’t been able to do a lot of that,” she said.

“But again, I try not to focus on the things that I cannot control and the things that are not working in my favour but [instead] trust the things that are working and work hard at those things,” Fraser-Pryce said.

The other three Jamaicans in the women’s 100m — world leader Shericka Jackson (11.06), Shashalee Forbes (11.12) and Natasha Morrison (11.02) — also progressed to the semi-finals.

The remaining major contenders also advanced, setting up what is expected to be one of the most competitive events of the championships.

American Sha’Carri Richardson led the first round with 10.92, followed by Poland’s Ewa Swoboda (10.98), St Lucia’s Julien Alfred (10.99) and American Brittany Brown (11.01).

Jackson let her talented legs do all the talking — she did not stop to talk to media personnel.

But Morrison, who was second to Richardson, and Forbes were both confident in their chances to qualify for the final.

Getting out of the first round was the first item on the agenda, said Morrison.

She added: “I feel like I executed the way I wanted so we will have to wait and see what my coach has to say.”

Forbes was satisfied with advancing, though she said the race did not go as she had hoped.

“I’m glad I came out and did what I had to do,” she said, though adding she was not pleased with her “transition” from the drive phase.

“I made a pause there so I have to go back and fix that,” Forbes noted.

Also on Sunday, women’s discus thrower Samantha Hall and men’s high jumper Romaine Beckford both failed to get past the first round of their events.

Hall, who also qualified for last year’s staging in Eugene, Oregon, had a best mark of 58.43m and was 23rd overall. Beckford, who won the NCAA indoors and outdoors double, cleared 2.22m for 22nd place overall.