Vet­er­an Ja­maican Shelly-Ann Fras­er-Pryce, rook­ie St Lu­cian Julien Al­fred and reign­ing World cham­pi­on Sha’Car­ri Richard­son of the Unit­ed States, will line up in a block­buster sec­ond se­mi-fi­nal of the women’s 100 me­tres at the Paris Olympics to­day, af­ter sail­ing through the open­ing round in France on Fri­day.

The 37-year-old Fras­er-Pryce, a for­mer World and Olympic cham­pi­on now in the twi­light of her ca­reer, was the fastest of the Caribbean co­hort, clock­ing 10.92 sec­onds as she fin­ished sec­ond in the last of eight heats be­hind Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith of Côte d’Ivoire (10.87).

Al­fred, mean­while, the 23-year-old in her first Olympiad, stormed to an equal­ly eye-catch­ing 10.95 as she cap­tured heat two ahead of New Zealand’s Zoe Hobbs (11:08).

Richard­son, 24, al­so im­pressed with a clock­ing of 10.94 en route to win­ning the open­ing heat, and lay­ing down a mark­er for the event.

The re­sults left the trio to go head-to-head in a se­mi-fi­nal sched­uled to be run off at 7:59 pm (1:59 pm East­ern Caribbean time), with the fi­nal set for 9:20 pm.

The open­ing se­mi-fi­nal will fea­ture Ja­maican Sha­halee Forbes lin­ing up against Ta Lou-Smith, in a race that will al­so see Great Britain’s Di­na Ash­er-Smith at­tempt­ing to reach the fi­nal.

Forbes, a late re­place­ment for World 200m cham­pi­on Sh­er­ic­ka Jack­son, made sure of her spot in the semis by fin­ish­ing sec­ond in heat six in 11.19, with 22-year-old Trinida­di­an Leah Bertrand al­so book­ing her place cour­tesy of a third place fin­ish in 11:27.

Bertrand will con­test the last se­mi-fi­nal against Ja­maican teenag­er Tia Clay­ton who se­cured her place in the sec­ond round by clock­ing 11 sec­onds flat, to fin­ish sec­ond in heat four be­hind Au­drey Leduc of Cana­da (10.95).

In­stalled in lane eight, the 19-year-old start­ed well but was forced to play sec­ond to Leduc and Great Britain’s Imani Lan­siquot (11.10) for most of the race be­fore catch­ing the Brit in the fi­nal me­tres.

Sev­er­al oth­er Caribbean ath­letes failed to ad­vance, Bar­ba­di­an Tris­tan Eve­lyn (11.55), Trinida­di­an Michelle-Lee Ahye (11.33), St Kitts and Nevis’ Zahria Allers-Liburd (11,89), Grena­di­an Halle Haz­zard (11.70) and An­tiguan Joel­la Lloyd (11.37) all miss­ing out.

In the open­ing round of the women’s 800 me­tres, St Vin­cent and the Grenadines’ Shafi­qua Mal­oney set a new na­tion­al record as she fin­ished third in heat five to reach the sec­ond round of the event.

The 25-year-old was timed at one minute, 58.23 sec­onds, cross­ing the line be­hind win­ner Tsige Dugu­ma of Ethiopia (1:57.90), with Kenyan Mary Moraa (1:57.95) fin­ish­ing sec­ond.

Mean­while, Ja­maican Na­toya Goule-Top­pin eased in­to the next round when she cap­tured the fi­nal of six heats by clock­ing 1:58.66, fin­ish­ing ahead of Clau­dia Hollingsworth of Aus­tralia (1:58.77).

There was no such good for­tune for Goule-Top­pin’s team­mate, Adelle Tracey who fin­ished one from last in heat four in a sea­son-best 2:03.47.

To­day’s morn­ing ses­sion will al­so be high­light­ed by the start of the men’s 100 me­tres which gets un­der­way at 10.35 am.