Gabby Thomas posts world-leading 21.60 to claim US women’s 200m title

EUGENE, Oregon – Gabby Thomas won the women’s 200m title in a world-leading 21.60 seconds on Sunday, throwing down a world championships challenge as she denied Sha’Carri Richardson a sprint double at the United States Track and Field Championships.

Richardson, coming off a 100m victory on Friday, seized the early lead but Thomas gained ground off the curve to take the victory, with Richardson second in a personal-best 21.94sec and Kayla White third in 22.01sec.

Thomas, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist, had opted not to run the 100m at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon last week and the decision looked right as, on fresh legs, she twice improved on the best 200m time of the season.

She had clocked a world-leading 21.86sec in the semi-finals, which reigning 200m world champion Shericka Jackson erased with a 21.71 at the Jamaican National Championships in Kingston on Sunday.

Thomas responded in a big way, her personal best amping up anticipation for a showdown with Jackson at the world championships in Budapest in August.

“Right after my world lead, I immediately saw that she went better,” Thomas said. “And so I’m thinking, OK, it’s on.”

It was a contrast to the 2022 US championships, where a tearful Thomas failed to book a world championships berth as she battled a hamstring injury.

“Coming here last year and being injured was really heartbreaking for me,” she said. “I was really ready this year. I was hungry, I wanted it more than, I think, anyone.”

Richardson will still have a chance at a sprint double when she contests her first world meet in Hungary.

She was infamously barred from the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after testing positive for marijuana, and then saw her hopes of competing for a medal in Eugene last July vanish when she bombed out of the US trials.

Over in Kingston, Jackson completed a superb sprint double with her sizzling 200m run after she ran a personal best 10.65sec to win the 100m on Friday.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, a three-time Olympic gold medallist and a five-time 100m world champion, finished second in a season-best 22.26sec, beating the 22.39 she ran in Saturday’s semi-finals, while Lanae-Tava Thomas was third in 22.55.

“I haven’t run a lot of 200s this year, so I wanted to practise how to run the 200m.

“I always just stay in my lane and focus on myself (not worrying about Fraser-Pryce) and I can’t focus on who is behind or who is in front,” Jackson said.

“I just need to focus on my lane, and I think I did that tonight, coming out victorious.”

Her compatriot, Commonwealth Games champion Rasheed Broadbell, produced a personal best and world-leading 12.94sec to win the 110m hurdles in a close contest with Olympic champion Hansle Parchment.

He said: “I was aiming for lower. But with God, nothing is impossible. He is just saying that it is not time yet.

“I have a few more weeks until the world championships, so I am just going to put in the work and see how far we can get.”

Parchment was second in 13.12sec and Orlando Bennett third in 13.19, both season-best runs.

Yohan Blake, 33, did not have the best day, though. The second-fastest man of all time over 200m was fourth in 20.51sec and will miss the world championships.

Andrew Hudson retained his 200m national title, his season-best of 20.11sec beating Rasheed Dwyer’s 20.26 while Tyquendo Tracey was third with a season’s best 20.48.

In the 200m over in Eugene, Erriyon Knighton held off Kenny Bednarek to win in 19.72sec with Courtney Lindsey third.

Bednarek and Knighton won silver and bronze behind teammate Noah Lyles at the previous world championships.

Lyles has a bye for the event in Budapest, where he will be

gunning for a sprint double

after finishing third in the 100m last week.

Reigning 100m world champion Fred Kerley, however, saw his hopes of a Budapest double evaporate with a fourth-placed finish in the 200m.

Christian Coleman, already assured of a 100m berth with his runner-up finish to Cravont Charleston, also missed out in the 200m, finishing sixth.
AFP, REUTERS