Defending world 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has not been setting the world on fire with her early season form, but there is no cause to worry for the little pocket-rocket.

Fraser-Pryce's barely legal 10.95 seconds season's best over the 100m at the Prefontaine Classics in Eugene, Oregon, where she finished in fourth place and her 22.69 seconds over 200m, registered at the UTech Classics earlier this year, have been her best marks so far.

not overly excited

While those are not poor times, the former Wolmerian is not overly excited by the start to her title-defending campaign - she is, however, fully aware that there is more than enough time to get everything in order before her date in Daegu.

"I think that my preparation has been ok, nothing out of the ordinary," said Fraser-Pryce after a recent session.

"As a sprinter, as a track athlete generally, you have to face obstacles, sometimes you are going to be faced with injuries and you will have to back off on the workload, but so far I am grateful and happy that I have been able to compete and compete well."

"I'm not worried though, I can't be worried because then I would be putting pressure on myself. So I'm just working hard and trying to stay focused, using each race to execute what I have been taught in training and trying to have the best possible season. At the end of the day, I have proven myself over and over again, so come World Champion-ships, I will have to just go there and execute."

The MVP Track Club star, who also mined gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, had been hampered by a minor back issue, which has affected her programme in December. However, she reported that she has made progress and agreed that the liberty of not having to qualify for the World Championships from this week's JAAA/SVL National Senior Champion-ships will certainly benefit her in the long run.

Before she gets there though, there is still the little matter of correcting the last 30m of her 100m races; a weakness that she has identified and has been working overtime to correct going into the big meet.

"My start this year has not been good, I have not been having great starts but that's because I have not been in the blocks for a while because of a back injury, but I think that my last 30m will be better because of the number of 200m that I have been doing this season so that should help with my 100m, particularly the last 30m," Fraser-Pryce added.

- A.L.