Sha’Carri Richardson wins first 100m of year, Beatrice Chebet smashes 10,000m world record

EUGENE – World champion Sha’Carri Richardson won her first 100m race of the Olympic season on May 25, clocking 10.83 seconds at the Eugene Diamond League, where Kenyan Beatrice Chebet shattered the 10,000m world record.

Richardson, who won the world title in August 2023 with her personal best of 10.65sec, was coming off a pair of sluggish 200m performances in China.

But she signalled her intentions for the United States Olympic trials in June with the second-fastest time of 2024, behind fellow American Jacious Sears’ 10.77sec in April.

The 24-year-old came out on top of a stacked field, in which Jamaica’s Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah finished last in 11.30sec.

Thompson-Herah, who has endured a roller-coaster period since Tokyo, largely due to Achilles tendon trouble, was launching her 2024 campaign and has work to do before the Jamaican trials in June.

Richardson admitted to a few butterflies before her win.

“I will not be human to say that I wasn’t nervous,” she said.

“But I feel like my performance reflects my training as well as my mindset and as well as my faith, continuing to understand who I am.”

With victory under her belt, she was looking forward to “grinding, focusing, growing and getting ready for the trials”, which will be held on the same Hayward Field track from June 21 to 30.

Chebet got things going by shattering the 10,000m world record with a time of 28min 54.14sec in a race serving as the Kenyan Olympic qualifier.

The win, in which she improved on the previous record of 29:01.03 set by Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey in 2021, immediately stamped her as a favourite in Paris, even though it was her first elite race at the distance on the track.

Chebet, a two-time cross-country world champion, said she was not thinking of the world record, but knew it was set up for Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay to challenge for the mark.

She shadowed Tsegay most of the way, took the lead with a late move and pulled away in a majestic final lap.

Tsegay took silver in 29:05.92.

“For me, I am happy,” she said. “With good health, I know I am going to medal at the Olympics.”

There was a marquee match-up in the meet’s signature Bowerman Mile, where 1,500m world champion Josh Kerr edged out Olympic gold medallist Jakob Ingebrigtsen by 0.26sec to triumph.

Britain’s Kerr clocked 3:45.34 to seize the win in the pair’s first meeting since Kerr stunned the Norwegian star at the world championships in August.

In other events, American Christian Coleman, the 2019 world champion, won the men’s 100m in 9.95sec. He beat Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, who was second in 9.98sec. AFP, REUTERS