BUDAPEST: American Sha’Carri Richardson crushed Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s hopes of a sixth women’s world 100m title when she stormed to victory in Budapest on Monday.
Richardson sprinted to a championship record of 10.65sec despite being in lane nine to seal a US 100m double after Noah Lyles’ victory in the men’s event on Sunday.
Shericka Jackson and veteran Jamaican teammate Fraser-Pryce took silver and bronze in 10.72sec and 10.77sec respectively on the third day of action in the Hungarian capital.
It was a remarkable run for the 23-year-old Richardson, who was barred from the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after testing positive for marijuana.
She then saw her hopes of challenging for a medal at last year’s world championships in Eugene go up in smoke when she failed to qualify in the US trials.
“I’m here. I’m the champion. I told you all. I’m not back, I’m better!” said Richardson, whose penchant for regular hair color changes and brightly painted nails has earned inevitable comparisons to the late Florence Griffith-Joyner.
Fraser-Pryce, the reigning champion, said she was “really grateful” for a bronze medal after a difficult season that was hampered by a knee injury.
“Last year I ran and won in a championship record and it took another championship record to win tonight,” the 36-year-old told the BBC.
“So it just speaks to the level of consistency for female sprinting and being able to make sure that when you show up you have to give 100 percent,” she said.
In a good night on the track for the US Grant Holloway became the second athlete after compatriot Greg Foster to claim three consecutive world 110m hurdles titles.
Holloway, 25, shot out to a season’s best of 12.96sec to win gold ahead of Jamaica’s Olympic champion Hansle Parchment, who finished in 13.07sec.
“Three in a row!” said Holloway. “The main thing was really just to come through here and defend my title.
“I felt no pressure at all, I just wanted to run cleanly and stay calm at the finish line.”
The two field event medals on offer went to Sweden and, in a historic first, Burkina Faso.
Olympic champion Daniel Stahl left it late to win a second world discus title that had the crowd gripped.
The Swede, who previously triumphed in Doha in 2019, had control of the leaderboard only for defending champion Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia to grab the lead with his sixth and final throw.
All eyes turned to Stahl for the final throw of the competition and the Swede did not disappoint, throwing a championship record of 71.46m.
“This was my best performance ever,” said Stahl. I had so much focus, I would say 1,000 percent on the last throw after I saw Kristjan.”
Ceh took silver with 70.02m while Lithuania’s 19-year-old Mykolas Alekna claimed bronze with 68.85m.
In the triple jump, Hugues Fabrice Zango gave the west African nation of Burkina Faso its first global athletics title when he won with a mark of 17.64m.
Cubans Lazaro Martinez and Cristian Napoles won silver and bronze.
“The competition was easy for me,” said Zango, who won world silver last year and also claimed his country’s first ever Olympic medal with a bronze in Tokyo in 2021.
Zango’s path to glory was made easier by the first-round withdrawal through injury of much-vaunted 18-year-old Jamaican Jaydon Hibbert.
In other track events, 400m hurdles stars Karsten Warholm and Femke Bol made short work of their qualifying rounds.
World record holder Warholm seemed to barely break sweat despite the sultry conditions as he cruised through to Wednesday’s final.
Defending world champion Alison Dos Santos of Brazil and American Rai Benjamin also sailed through.
“There is surely going to be someone who challenges me but today it was very good and I felt strong,” said Warholm.
Bol made up for the disappointment of falling with the line at her mercy in the mixed 4x400m relay by striding clear to ease into Tuesday’s semifinals.
“I do not want to talk about what happened last Saturday,” said the Dutchwoman, the stand-out favorite in the absence of injured American world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
