Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce celebrates with the national flag after clocking 10.71 seconds to capture the gold medal in the women's 100 metres final at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn

MOSCOW, Russia:

Stephenie McPherson showed serious promise, Novlene Williams-Mills contemplates retirement, Hansle Parchment suffers another injury setback, Kaliese Spencer was disqualified, and Andrew Riley finished at the back of the field in the sprint hurdles final.

It was all going wrong for Jamaica on the third day of competition at the IAAF World Championships until Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce crossed the finish line in the 100m final way ahead of the pack.

The double Olympic champion was Jamaica's lone bright spark on a miserable day, but what a spark it was.

Despite not getting the sub-10.70 mark that she was looking for, Fraser-Pryce established herself as undoubtedly the world's best female sprinter, winning by almost five metres on a high-quality field with a time of 10.71 - tied for the eighth fastest time by a woman in history.

However, the MVP Track Club star, who has a personal best of 10.70, has made no secret of her ambition to take her time into the 10.6 seconds realm, a mark that she promises will be met before the end of the season.

"I wasn't thinking too much about the time, I was more focused on execution. It's unfortunate that I didn't get to 10.6, but I got the gold medal. The time will come definitely before the season ends," Fraser-Pryce said.

Murielle Ahoure of Cote d'Ivoire was second in 10.95, with American Carmerlita Jeter finishing third in 10.94. Jamaica's Kerron Stewart was fifth in 10.97.

Only three women have gone faster than Fraser-Pryce, Florence Griffith Joyner, (10.49), Carmelita Jeter (10.64) and Marion Jones (10.65).

Earlier, McPherson ran a mature race in the 400m final but finished in fourth in 49.99. The event was won by Britain's Christine Ohuruogu in a national record 49.41 ahead of Botswana's Amantle Monstho, who posted the same time and Russia's Anna Krivoshapka, 49.78 was third.

"I think I took too long to run, but I will be back," McPherson said.

Williams-Mills said she will take some time to think about her future after finishing eighth in 51.49 after a long and successful battle against breast cancer.

Riley, 13.51, also missed out on a medal, finishing eighth in the 110m hurdles final, after clipping hurdle eight while in second place to eventual winner David Oliver, 13.00. Another American Ryan Wilson, 13.13, was second with Russia's Sergey Shubenkov, 13.24, running third.

Earlier, during the semi-finals, Olympic bronze medallist Hansle Parchment suffered a cramp to his right calf and crashed into the last hurdle before being stretchered off.

There was also disaster for standout 400m hurdler Kaliese Spencer, who was disqualified after crossing the line first in her heat for carring her trail leg around and not over the second hurdle. She was judged to have violated rule 168.7 (a) which states "Trailed left/right leg below the horizontal plane of the top of hurdle at the instant of clearance."

Nickiesha Wilson, 55.75, who came third in her heat as well as Ristananna Tracey, 55.94, who qualified as one of the best non-automatic qualifiers, are through to today's semis at 10:05 a.m. (Jamaica time).

All three men in the 400m hurdles moved on to the semis, set for 10:40 a.m., with Leford Green, 49.45, Isa Phillips, 49.57 and Annsert Whyte, 49.63 all gaining automatic qualification.

Medals Table

G S B Tot

1 United States 3 2 1 6

2 Jamaica 2 0 1 3

3 Great Britain 2 0 0 2

4 Germany 1 2 1 4

5 Ethiopia 1 1 1 3

5 Kenya 1 1 1 3

7 Russia 1 0 2 3

8 Croatia 1 0 0 1

8 New Zealand 1 0 0 1

8 Poland 1 0 0 1

11 France 0 2 0 2

12 China 0 1 1 2

13 Botswana 0 1 0 1

13 Cote d'Ivoire 0 1 0 1

13 Hungary 0 1 0 1

13 Italy 0 1 0 1

13 Nigeria 0 1 0 1

18 Canada 0 0 1 1

18 Cuba 0 0 1 1

18 Czech Rep. 0 0 1 1

18 Spain 0 0 1 1

18 Japan 0 0 1 1

18 Serbia 0 0 1 1