Sha’Carri Richardson versus Elaine Thompson-Herah in the 100m is a featured event at the Pre Classic in Eugene, Oregon, live on NBC Sports and Peacock on Saturday from 4-6 p.m. ET.
Richardson, the 22-year-old whose U.S. Olympic Trials win was disqualified due to a positive marijuana test, made her 2022 debut on Saturday. She ran a pair of 100m, clocking 11.37 and then 11.27 into headwinds in rainy Jacksonville, Florida.
Her personal best is 10.72 seconds from last year.
Thompson-Herah, the Jamaican who swept the 100m and 200m at the last two Olympics, has already run 10.89, 10.93 and 10.94 this season. She withdrew before last Saturday’s Diamond League meet in Great Britain, citing discomfort in training, then turned up to run the 10.94 at a meet in Kingston.
Thompson-Herah’s personal best of 10.54, the second-fastest time in history, was set at the last Pre Classic in August. There, Richardson was last in 11.14 seconds.
That 11.14 is Richardson’s best time in four 100m since the Olympic Trials, ranking her 57th in the world over the last nine months.
Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the 2008 and 2012 Olympic 100m champion who is ranked No. 1 this year, is entered in the 200m at Pre.
Later Monday, the Italian track and field federation announced that Olympic men’s 100m champion Marcell Jacobs will miss the Pre Classic due to a muscle injury that will sideline him for 10 days.
Jacobs was to headline the men’s 100m at Pre that also includes world champion Christian Coleman, Olympic silver medalist Fred Kerley and Olympic bronze medalist Andre De Grasse.
Erriyon Knighton, the 18-year-old 200m phenom, is entered in the 100m and could become the first U.S. high schooler to break 10 seconds.* (*Knighton’s graduation is earlier in the week, but past performances have counted for high school records into the summer after graduation.)
Competition begins Friday night with world-record attempts in the men’s 5000m (Joshua Cheptegei), women’s two mile (Caster Semenya, Sifan Hassan, Francine Niyonsaba) and women’s one-hour run (Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia), plus the U.S. Championships for the 10,000m.
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