Thompson-Herah spoils Richardson’s comeback with emphatic win

EUGENE: Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah scored an emphatic 100 metres victory over the returning Sha’Carri Richard­son at the Eugene Diamond League on Saturday.

Jamaican star Thompson-Herah powered over the line at Hayward Field in 10.54 seconds — the second fastest time in history — as Richardson finished a distant last in 11.14 seconds.

The clash in Eugene had been billed as a chance for Richardson to show the world what might have been after she was banned from the Olympics for testing positive for marijuana following her win at the US trials in June.

But in her first race since returning from suspension, the 21-year-old Texan was never in contention as Thompson-Herah — who completed back-to-back Olympic 100m and 200m wins in Tokyo — surged away to finish several metres clear of the field.

Thompson-Herah’s compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce finished second in 10.73 seconds while Shericka Jackson took third in 10.76 — a carbon copy of the Tokyo Olympic 100m podium.

Thompson-Herah’s winning time saw her slice 0.07sec off her Olympic record of 10.61 seconds set on July 31.

Only the late Florence Griffith Joyner has ever run faster, with Thompson-Herah now tantalisingly close to the American’s 33-year-old world record of 10.49 seconds.

Richardson later withdrew from a women’s 200 metres won by Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji.

The star-studded field for the event included 47 medallists from the Tokyo Games with American sprint star Noah Lyles bouncing back from his disappointing Olym­pic campaign with a blistering victory in the 200 metres.

Lyles, the reigning 200m world champion, had been one of the biggest US medal hopes in Tokyo but in the end was forced to settle for a bronze after an uneven campaign with Canada’s Andre de Grasse taking gold.

But Lyles provided a reminder of his pedigree on Saturday with victory in 19.52 seconds, the fastest time in the world this year and nearly a full tenth of a second faster than de Grasse’s winning time in the Olympic final.

Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek was second in 19.80 seconds with Lyles’ brother Josephus third in 20.03.

De Grasse meanwhile showed his class in the 100 metres, overpowering a high class field to win in a wind-assisted 9.74 seconds. Olympic 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley was second in 9.78 seconds with Ronnie Baker third in 9.82.

Olympic champion Athing Mu won the women’s 800 metres in 1:55.04, her last race of the season in which she also won gold in the 4×400 relay.

Canadian Marco Arop won the men’s 800 metres in 1:44.51, besting Olympic gold medallist Emmanuel Korir of Kenya, who finished third, and silver medallist Ferguson Rotich, who was runner-up.

There was another dominant performance in the women’s 1,500m, where Kenya’s Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon crushed the field to win in three minutes 53.23 seconds.

Kipyegon, who successfully defended her Olympic title in Tokyo, finished more than six seconds clear of the field with Australia’s Linden Hall in second.

In the men’s mile, Nor­way’s newly crowned Olym­pic 1,500-metre champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen cruised to victory in a world leading three minutes 47.24 seconds.

With her key rival and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin absent, Tokyo silver medallist Dalilah Muhammad made light work of the 400-metre hurdles, winning by more than one second in 52.77.

In the women’s 3,000-metre steeplechase, Kenya’s Norah Jeruto put up a world-leading 8:53.65 to win, as American Courtney Frerichs took second in 8:57.77 after winning silver in Tokyo.

Ryan Crouser the gold medallist in the shot put who set a world record in the event at the trials, won the event at the Pre with a meet-record mark of 23.15 metres. Pedro Pechardo of Portugal won the triple jump. In the women’s field events, American Katie Nageotte won the pole vault and Iryna Gerashchenko of the Ukraine took the high jump.