American Sha'Carri smashes the Championships Record to win 100m women's race

Budapest 

Tuesday, 22 August, 2023

McCreadie Andias 

The American sprinter ran a Championship record 10.65 seconds in the final at the track and field race crashing 0.02 seconds off the previous best set by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce last year.

A disbelieving Richardson trailed both defending champion Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson in the early metres, but quickly closed the gap before hitting the front to pip Jackson (10.72) to the line.

Fraser-Pryce was third in a season best 10.77.

"I would definitely say it's a good start," Richardson said in the press conference afterward when asked about her result in her debut major international championships. "From the beginning of the journey, I'm honoured, I'm blessed, it was a great competition and brought out the best in myself. I'm not back, I'm better, and I'm going to continue to be better."

Jackson, for her part, was clearly disappointed. "I definitely have to go back and look at tonight," she said. "I think I executed as best as possible. Coach and I will have to discuss what I did, I can't tell you what I did different from what I did in Jamaica."

Last year's champion Fraser-Pryce reflected: "Congrats to Sha'Carri and Shericka, it was really a fantastic race. Last year I ran the 100 in a Championship record and it took a Championship record tonight, so that's really remarkable."

Richardson was in her first major global outdoor meet as she missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021, having served a one-month suspension for testing positive for cannabis at the American trials which led to her non-selection by Team USA, and did not qualify for last year's World Championships in Oregon.