World Indoors: Fraser-Pryce, Campbell-Brown in sprint semis

Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce competes in women 60 metres heat 2 at the IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships in the Ergo Arena in the Polish coastal town of Sopot, on March 8, 2014

Sopot (Poland), March 9 (IANS/CMC) Reigning World and Olympic 100 metres champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce stormed into Sunday’s semi-finals of the women’s 60m sprint, when she won her heat at the World Indoor Championships here.

Running out of lane three in heat two, the dynamic pint-sized sprinter easily brushed aside her competition to cross the line in 7.12 seconds, with the British Virgin Islands’ Tahesia Harrigan-Scott finishing second in 7.20 seconds, reports CMC.

“I am happy with my race. I did what I had to do to qualify,” said Fraser-Pryce, who captured the sprint double at the World Championships in Moscow last year.

Fraser-Pryce will be joined in the semi-finals by fellow Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown who put her recent doping allegations behind her to snatch third place in heat four in a season-best 7.22.

Campbell-Brown, a former World and Olympic sprint champion, was racing for the first time since testing positive last May. She was recently cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, after appealing.

The Caribbean will have two more berths in the semi-finals as Trinidadian Michelle-Lee Ahye and Bahamian Sheniqua Ferguson secured their places in the penultimate round.

Ahye was timed at 7.14 seconds in finishing second in heat three to German Verena Sailer (7.13) while Ferguson qualified courtesy of her 7.31 seconds in heat one even though she finished fourth.

“I’m very pleased with the race today. My approach to competition is be confident and take no prisoners. The track feels fast. I’ve been training in the US for a while, so I’m used to competing indoors,” Ahye said.

Trinidadian Geronne Black failed to make it though, however, finishing sixth in heat five in 7.45 seconds.

–IANS/CMC