Sha’Carri Richardson didn’t waste any time in announcing her presence at the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore., on Thursday, posting the fastest 100-meter time in the world this year — in the first round.
Richardson won her heat with 10.71-second mark, tying a meet record and establishing a new personal best. The 23-year-old is one of the most recognizable stars in the sport right now, and she is looking to avenge her performance in this competition last year, when she failed to qualify for the finals in the 100 or 200.
She also missed the 2021 Tokyo Olympics after receiving a one-month suspension for testing positive for THC at the U.S. Olympic trials. The suspension, handed down by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, had to be served during the Olympics.
Richardson will compete in the 100-meter semifinals on Friday and, if she qualifies, will run in the final later that evening. She begins qualifying for the 200 on Saturday.
The first round of the men’s 100 meters, on the other hand, saw one of its favorites go down with injury and another limp off the track. Marvin Bracy-Williams, the 2022 world championships silver medalist, pulled up in the fourth heat race of the day and finished last. In the day’s first heat race, two-time world championships bronze medalist Trayvon Bromell (10.05) finished second but was visibly limping following the race.
In the women’s 400 meters, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone — the reigning Olympic champion, world champion, U.S. champion and world-record holder — posted the fastest time in the first round at 49.79 seconds, the only sub-50 run of the day. She, too, would have to run the semis and finals on Friday to defend her crown.
In medal events on Thursday:
–Sam Mattis, the top-ranked American and No. 9-ranked thrower in the world, won gold in the discus with a throw of 65.93 meters. That is an improvement of more than 3 1/2 meters from his bronze medal-winning throw at last year’s USATF Outdoor Championships and was the only mark in the meet to qualify for worlds. Andrew Evans, the 2022 gold medalist, finished 14th at 56.19.
–Tori Franklin won the women’s triple jump by the slimmest of margins with a mark of 14.44 meters — .01 meter better than silver medalist Keturah Orji. At last year’s U.S. Championships, the results were flipped, with Orji taking gold. Jasmine Moore won bronze Thursday with a 14.19-meter leap. All three qualified for the world championships with their marks.
–Maddie Harris threw a personal-best 60.73 meters to take gold in the women’s javelin. Maggie Malone took silver with 58.79 and Madison Wiltrout threw 55.51 for bronze. None of the throws met the world championship qualifying standard, however.
–A pair of runners posted world championship-qualifying times in the women’s 10,000 meters: Elise Cranny with a gold-winning run of 32:12.30 and Alicia Monson’s silver-winning 32:17.51 run. Natosha Rogers grabbed bronze with a time of 32:22.77.
–Woody Kincaid ran a sub-55-second final 400 to storm back from third to take gold in the men’s 10,000 meters, the day’s final event. Joe Klecker finished second at 28:24.50, more than a second off Kincaid’s winning 28:23.01 time. Both marks were good enough to qualify for the worlds. Sean McGorty finished third at 28:24.96.
–Field Level Media
