Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah won the 100m at the Pre Classic, while runner-up Sha’Carri Richardson‘s performance put her back in the medal mix for July’s world championships at the same track.
Thompson-Herah, who in Tokyo became the first woman to win the 100m and 200m at back-to-back Olympics, clocked 10.79 seconds at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon. The Jamaican ran 10.54 at Pre last year, the second-best time in history, and has dealt with Achilles and shoulder injuries this spring.
“To keep the fire going, it’s a challenge sometimes, especially when you have bumps in the road,” Thompson-Herah said. “I am a fighter, and every champion has something they’re fighting.”
Richardson was second in 10.92 with her tiara falling off mid-race. The result was promising given it’s just her second meet of the year and her fastest time since last year’s Olympic Trials by a sizable .22 of a second. Richardson won last June’s trials at Hayward, then was disqualified for testing positive for marijuana and missed the Tokyo Games.
Richardson, who did not speak to media after the race, is now the joint-third-fastest American this year and presumably still on the ascent given her late start to the season. Next, she must finish top three at the USATF Outdoor Championships in four weeks, also at Hayward, to make the world team.
Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the 2008 and 2012 Olympic champion, remains fastest in the world this year with a 10.67 from three weeks ago. Fraser-Pryce entered the 200m at Pre and won in 22.41, well off the world’s top time this year of 21.87 from Olympic silver medalist Christine Mboma of Namibia.
Full Pre Classic results are here. The Diamond League moves to Rabat, Morocco, for a meet on June 5.
Also Saturday, Trayvon Bromell stamped himself as the men’s 100m favorite for nationals by winning in 9.93, .08 off the fastest time in the world this year held by Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala.
Bromell, the world’s fastest man last year yet eliminated in the Olympic semifinals, was followed by Olympic silver medalist Fred Kerley (9.98), world 100m champion Christian Coleman (10.04) and world 200m champion Noah Lyles (10.05).
“When people complain and things like, ‘Is he going to show up in a big race?’ This year I’m worried only about myself,” Bromell said, according to The Associated Press. “I don’t care what the naysayers say.”
American Michael Norman won the men’s 400m in 43.60 seconds, the world’s best time since the 2019 World Championships. Norman ran the world’s best 400m in the last Olympic cycle — 43.45 seconds in April 2019. He then missed the medals at the last worlds and Olympics while also dealing with injuries during the cycle.
In the Bowerman Mile won by Norway’s Olympic champ Jakob Ingebrigtsen in 3:49.76, Colin Sahlman ran 3:56.24 to become the third-fastest American high schooler in history behind Jim Ryun and Alan Webb.
In the shot put, two-time gold medalist Ryan Crouser prevailed with a throw (23.02 meters) that no man other than the world record holder Crouser has eclipsed in 32 years.
Norah Jeruto, a Kenyan-born Kazakh, won a women’s 3000m steeplechase that included three of the five fastest women in history. American Emma Coburn, the 2019 World champion, was eighth. American Courtney Frerichs, the Olympic silver medalist, was ninth.
Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won the 100m hurdles in 12.45, beating a field that included reigning world champion Nia Ali (seventh, 12.77) and Olympic silver medalist Keni Harrison (eighth, 12.78).
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon of Kenya easily won the women’s 1500m in 3:52.59, distancing Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay by 1.62 seconds in the world’s best time this year by 8.91 seconds.
Olympic bronze medalist Alison dos Santos of Brazil won the men’s 400m hurdles in 47.23 seconds, beating his fastest time in the world this year by one hundredth. Olympic silver medalist Rai Benjamin withdrew earlier this week. Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Karsten Warholm of Norway did not enter Pre.
Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi took the men’s 5000m in 12:50.05, best in the world this year. On Friday night, Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda won a 5000m in 12:57.99 in a failed bid to break his world record of 12:35.36.
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Pre Classic: Elaine Thompson-Herah wins, Sha’Carri Richardson is back originally appeared on NBCSports.com