Sha’Carri Richardson Withdraws from the Diamond League Final
It’s been quite a few months for American track star Sha’Carri Richardson. In April, she posted the fourth-fastest women’s 100-meter time ever under any conditions (10.57 seconds with a tailwind of 4.1 meters/second, above the allowable 2 m/s for records) to win the Mirimar Invitational in Florida. Then in June, Richardson ran the seventh-fastest time ever with record-allowable wind (0.1 m/s) by posting a 10.71 in a dominant preliminary heat performance at the U.S. Track and Field Championships (and then won the event with a 10.82 in the final). And last week, she posted a 10.76 to win a Diamond League event in Silesia.
However, on Sunday, Richardson hit a setback. She withdrew from the Diamond League event in London ahead of the 100m final, which had her in a highly-anticipated clash with Shericka Jackson of Jamaica (who tied for the fifth-best time ever with a 10.65 (1.0 m/s wind) on July 7) and Marie-Josée Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast. Richardson cited a sore hamstring and a desire to stay healthy for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest next month:
Ta Lou went on to win that final with a 10.75.
Hopefully, this injury won’t be too severe for Richardson. She’s been having quite the year and reestablishing herself among the best in the 100m in the world, with that coming after she missed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (actually held in 2021) due to a cannabis suspension and had some struggles later in 2021 and 2022. We’ll see if she can return for those World Athletics Championships, which begin on Aug. 19.
