LSU frosh Sha’Carri Richardson made a smooth transition from high school to collegiate track, going from a prep best of 11.28 two years ago to 10.99 going into the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas.
But on Saturday, she rocketed into world-class and contention for the World Championships in Doha with a stunning 10.75 victory in the women’s 100 m, shattering long-standing records that many thought wouldn’t be challenged for years:
● U.S. Collegiate: 10.78, Dawn Sowell (USA/BYU), 1989
● World Junior: 10.88, Marlies Gohr (GDR), 1977
Sowell’s mark was run at altitude in Provo, Utah and was thought untouchable, and Gohr (then Oelsner) had held the World Junior mark for 42 years!
Against an excellent field and with LSU needing every point it could get to stay in the race for the team title, Richardson got a good start, but was behind Kayla White from North Carolina A&T at about 60 m, but then Richardson had another gear and took off, leaving everyone behind and celebrating with about 5 m to go!
Her 10.75 moves her to no. 9 on the all-time list, with the fastest time run in two years, since Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson ran 10.71 in 2017. White was second in 10.95 and Twanisha Terry (USC) was third – both Americans – in 10.98. The wind was legal at +1.6 m/s.
That was one of five world leaders on the women’s final day at the NCAA Champs:
● 100 m hurdles: Jamaica’s Janeek Brown, also in the thick of the team race for Arkansas, raced through the barriers in 12.40, moving her no. 15 all-time and taking the world lead from American Keni Harrison (12.47). The wind was fine; +0.6 m/s, and Brown was followed by Chanel Brissett (USA/USC) in 12.52 and Tonea Marshall of LSU (USA) in 12.66, both lifetime bests.
● 4×100 m: USC’s team of Brissett, Angie Annelus, Jamaican Lanae-Tava Thomas and Terry ran 42.21, easily the fastest in the world this season, but won’t be listed as such since it was a mixed-nationality team. But LSU’s all-American team of Marshall, Kortnei Johnson, Rachel Misher and Richardson finished in 42.29 and that should be the world leader, well better than the U.S. team that ran 42.51 at the World Relays.
● 200 m: USC’s Angie Annelus (USA) defended her title against Richardson by a hair in a 22.16 to 22.17, with a legal +1.3 m/s wind. That’s a world leader, and both were faster than Dina Asher-Smith (GBR) and her 22.18 from earlier in the season.
It’s also another World Junior Record for Richardson – with an hour – chasing Allyson Felix off the record list with her 22.18 in for the Olympic silver medal in Athens in 2004.
● 4×400 m: The women’s team title came down to a fight between USC and Arkansas, but it was the Texas A&M all-American quartet of Jarra Owens, Tierra Robinson-Jones, Jaevin Reed and Syaira Richardson that won, finishing in 3:25.57, another world leader, faster than the U.S. at the World Relays (3:25.72).
The Arkansas squad of Paris Peoples, Kiara Parker, Morgan Burks-Magee with a 49.79 leg from Kethlin Campbell (all Americans) got the stick around in 3:25.89 for second and as USC’s Anna Cockrell lost the baton on the third leg, the Razorbacks won the team title by 64-57.
The complete results are here.
The follow-up to the men’s final day on Friday was news that both of the hurdle stars – Grant Holloway and Daniel Roberts – are both going professional and will be able to compete for money at this year’s Diamond League and World Championships.
