Shelly-Ann Fraser, the Beijing Olympics women's 100m champion, has pulled out of this weekend's Reebok Grand Prixin New York City.

Bruce James, president of Fraser's MVP Track Club, yesterday confirmed that the athlete, who has started the 2009 season slowly following surgery to remove her appendix, will forgo participating in the event in an attempt improve her current form.

"We are just trying to make sure she is ready before she races again," explained James.

In her lone 100m outing, Fraser was relegated to third (11.15) at the JamaicaInternational Invitational on May 2, and then recorded a time of 23.44 for second in the 200m, behind Rosemarie White at the UTech Classic on April 18. Fraser also looked less than her best when she anchored Jamaica to second behind the United States at the Penn Relays on April 25.

shocked the world

The athlete, who shocked the world with a time of 10.78 seconds, a lifetime best, which gave her the Olympic 100m crown, had been expected to run the women's 200m at the Reebok meet.

Fraser would have lined up alongside Americans Shalonda Solomon, who set an indoor American record at 300 metres in February, and Bianca Knight, winner of the NCAA Indoor Championships at 200 metres in 2008.

However, Fraser's coach Stephen Francis, while admitting the surgery was a setback, believes the athlete has been recovering well.

"The appendix (operation) was a big setback, because she was looking very good," Francis said.

"She was even running, for her, some good 400m times," he added.

"I think she is coming back to where she was before and I think towards the end of July, August, she will be better than last year, because she certainly has trained a lot harder," Francis said.