Posted: June 25, 2006

Athletics: 10.82 Thrusts Simpson To The Verge Of World Top-10

By Bob Ramsak
© 2006 TRACK PROFILE Report, all rights reserved

With her commanding 10.82 victory at the Jamaican national championships on Saturday, Sherone Simpson found herself, statistically anyway, in some fast company. Simpson, still only 21, joined Marlies Gohr, Gail Devers, Gwen Torrence and Zhanna Block as the 12th fastest woman ever in the 100 meters.

After a 10.97 PB at last year's national championships, where she finished second, Simpson went on to finish sixth in the short dash at the world championships in 11.09, and capped her season with a sixth place showing at the World Athletics Final.

She began 2006 with an upset win over Olympic champion Veronica Campbell in the 200 at the Commonwealth Games, and in early May, produced a PB 22.14 in the 200, thus far the season's fastest, also in Kingston. Simpson is slated to compete in the 200 meter final today as well.

Top-10 All-time 100m Performers:

   1. 10.49 - Florence Griffith-Joyner USA - Indianapolis, IN, USA, 16 Jul 1988 
   2. 10.65A - Marion Jones USA - Johannesburg, 12 Sep 1998 
   3. 10.73 - Christine Arron FRA - Budapest, 19 Aug 1998 
   4. 10.74 - Merlene Ottey JAM - Milano, 07 Sep 1996 
   5. 10.76 - Evelyn Ashford USA - Zürich, 22 Aug 1984 
  =6. 10.77 - Irina Privalova RUS - Lausanne, 06 Jul 1994 
  =6. 10.77 - Ivet Lalova BUL - Plovdiv, 19 Jun 2004 
   8. 10.78A - Dawn Sowell USA - Provo, UT, USA, 03 Jun 1989 
  =9. 10.79 - Xuemei Li CHN - Shanghai, 18 Oct 1997 
  =9. 10.79 - Inger Miller USA - Sevilla, 22 Aug 1999 
  11. 10.81 - Marlies Göhr GDR - Berlin, 08 Jun 1983 
 =12. 10.82 - Gail Devers USA - Barcelona, 01 Aug 1992 
 =12. 10.82 - Gwen Torrence USA - Paris, 03 Sep 1994 
 =12. 10.82 - Zhanna Block UKR - Edmonton, 06 Aug 2001 
 =12. 10.82 - Sherone Simpson, JAM - Kingston, 24 Jun 2006
 =16. 10.83 - Marita Koch, GDR - Berlin, 08 Jun 1983 
 =16. 10.83 - Sheila Echols, USA - Indianapolis, IN, USA, 16 Jul 1988 
 =16. 10.83 - Juliet Cuthbert, JAM - Barcelona 01 Aug 1992 
 =16. 10.83 - Ekateríni Thánou, GRE - Sevilla 22 Aug 1999 

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