Richardson posts world-leading time at US championships

Sprint star launches her bid for worlds berth with season-best 10.71sec in 100m heats

EUGENE:

US sprint star Sha'Carri Richardson launched her latest bid for a first World Championships berth with a world-leading 10.71sec in the 100m heats at the US athletics championships in Eugene, Oregon, on Thursday.

Richardson delivered a personal best to continue her strong start to a season highlighted by the World Championships in Budapest in August.

Richardson clocked a 10.76sec at the Doha Diamond League meeting on May 5 – a month after a sensational wind-aided 10.57sec at the Miramar Invitational in Florida in April.

On Thursday she improved on the previous world-leading time of the season of 10.75sec set by Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou at the Bislett Games on June 15.

Richardson was infamously barred from the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after testing positive for marijuana.

She then saw her hopes of competing for a medal at last year's World Championships vanish when she bombed out of the US trials.

The 23-year-old, who said this season she is making up for lost time, opted not to discuss her performance, preferring to remain focused with the semi-finals and final to come on Friday.

Only the top three finishers will secure a World Championships berth.

Richardson easily won her heat ahead of Brittany Brown, whose 10.96 was second-fastest overall. Tamara Clark posted the third-fastest time of 11.02.

Christian Coleman, the 2019 world champion who missed the Tokyo Olympics after a ban for missed drug tests, led the way into the men's 100m semi-finals 9.95sec.

"You hit 9.95 in the first round, it seems like a pretty good race," Coleman said. "So just try to clean it up and let it rip tomorrow."

Cravont Charleston was second-fastest overall in 10.01 while Kendal Williams and JT Smith both posted times of 10.02.

Last year's 100m world bronze medallist Trayvon Bromell and reigning 200m world champion Noah Lyles advanced with identical times of 10.05.

But Marvin Bracy-Williams, who took silver behind fellow American Fred Kerley at last year's worlds, pulled up with an injury and failed to advance.

Coleman said plenty of work remained to secure a 100m Budapest berth, even with Kerley – who has a bye as defending champion – opting to run the 200m this week.

"Just anybody's game when you get out there on the line," Coleman said. "So I've got to earn it."

Lyles, who is targeting a 100-200 double in Budapest, recovered from a mediocre start to book his semi-final berth and revealed he had only been cleared to travel on Sunday after a second bout of Covid.

"Very wild week," Lyles said. "My top end (speed) is there, just got to wake my body up."

Five finals were on the slate with Tori Franklin winning the women's triple jump with a leap of 14.44m.

Maddie Harris won the women's Javelin with a throw of 60.73m and Sam Mattis won the men's discus with a 65.93m throw.

On the track, Woody Kincaid won the men's 10,000m in 28min 23.01sec and Elise Cranny won the women's 10,000m in 32:12.30.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the 400m hurdles world record holder and world champion who has turned her attention to the 400m flat this season, led the 400m heats with a time of 49.79sec.

Reigning 800m world champion Athing Mu sliced almost six seconds off her 1,500m personal best as she advanced to the semi-finals in 4:10.33 – sixth-fastest of the day behind Sinclaire Johnson's top time of 4:07.84.

Mu, who has a bye to defend her 800m crown, said she'd see how she recovers before deciding if she'll run every round of the 1,500m.