US sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson won a scintillating women’s 100 meters in a championship record 10.65 seconds at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Monday.
Jamaican sprinters finished second and third as Richardson, in the less-than-desirable lane 9, made up a deficit to edge ahead in the final meters. Olympic bronze medalist Shericka Jackson earned the silver medal in 10.72 seconds, and two-time Olympic gold medalist and last year’s 100-meter champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce claimed the bronze in 10.77.
In 2021, Richardson had been expected to be one of the biggest draws at the Tokyo Olympic Games after winning the women’s 100 meters at the US trials, but did not compete after accepting a one-month ban for her positive test for cannabis. She later said her action was the result of mourning the death of her mother.
Richardson said running in the outside lane Monday evening was emblematic.
“I was by myself in my own world, which honestly has been like that all my life. I’ve always been in my own world, my own element, so being in lane 9 was perfect for me to do what it is I know to do and to focus in more on myself. And when I celebrated it was because I felt like I did my best no matter what the result was going to be. I felt like I did my best.”
This year’s World Championships is her first major global event since the Olympics. She is also entered in the 200 meters, which will be contested Wednesday through Friday. Richardson has posted the fourth-fastest 200 meters time this year.
Richardson is one of six women in the pool for the US 4×100-meter relay team.
Earlier this year, Richardson showed excellent form at the US championships, running the 100 meters in a then-world best time of 10.71. In July, Jackson, 29, moved to the top of the 2023 leaderboard with a 10.65 at the Jamaican nationals.
Richardson’s time Monday is a personal best and is .16 behind the world record Florence Griffith-Joyner set in 1988.