EUGENE, Oregon — Five-time World Championships 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is not putting any limit on herself or her time in the sport after she said she surprised herself last year by running faster than she had before.

The 35-year-old Fraser-Pryce ran 10.67 seconds to win the women’s 100m title at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon last Sunday, equalling her season’s best. She returned on Thursday to run another season best, 21.81 seconds, for second in the 200m — just off her personal best 21.79 seconds set last year.

“Before I ran last year I thought 2021 was going to be my final year,” she said at a press conference at Hayward Field on Thursday.

“And then I surprised myself, running 10.6 and then doing it consistently and still running 21 seconds in the 200m, so I am really excited to see where this goes,” said Fraser-Pryce who has run five sub-10.70 times since last year, including a personal best 10.60 in Lausanne last year.

“Sometimes we get an opportunity and we think that ‘Okay, this is it.’ We just pack it up. But I really think I owe it to myself to see how far I can go as a sprinter and just continuing to transcend what I thought was possible for women, especially after having a baby and after turning 30,” she noted.

The 13-time World Championships medallist said age is just a number and should never be the reason to stop doing what you do.

“When you were younger you hear ‘Oh, you are 30; it’s time to pack it up.’ But I am 35 and turning 36 and to be here still competing at the level that I am is just a blessing, and I could not have asked God for anything else. But I am really having fun and looking forward to 2023 [World Championships] in Budapest and then we take it to 2024 [Olympic Games] in Paris,” Fraser-Pryce said.

— Paul Reid