On the second day of the 2024 OIympic Trials from Eugene, Oregon, Sha’Carri Richardson and Ryan Crouser showed why they are contenders for gold in Paris.
In the 100 meters, both the semifinals and the finals were run, just under two hours apart from one another. During the semis, Richardson came out the gates in Heat 1 with an incredibly 10.86 second run. After a imperfect start, she chased down the entire field by 50 meters and continued to add space to the finish line. While the buzz was still surrounding Richardson’s performance, Melissa Jefferson came into the blocks for third and final semifinal race, and showed why she has been on podium at the past two World Championships (4x100m relay gold), running the second fastest time of the semis at 10.87 seconds.
The final in the 100m was the last event of the evening at Hayward Field. All nine lanes filled with incredible athletes eager to travel to France next month.
Lining up next to each other in lanes five and six, Jefferson and Richardson were both came out of the blocks with clean starts and were off the races, with Jefferson just ahead of Sha’Carri until about the halfway point of the straightaway. From then on Richardson’s incredible speed pushed through the finish line, finishing in a world-leading 10.71 seconds to Melissa’s new personal best of 10.80. Both would be going to Paris. Their training partner, TeeTee Terry, who also has Team USA relay gold from Eugene and Budapest, finished third in an incredibly tight photo finish, running a season best 10.89 seconds. All told, six women in the final ran sub-11, with seven season best times being tallied.
WATCH: SHA’CARRI TO PARIS: RIchardson SCORCHES 100m Trials final
Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs go wire-to-wire in the shot put
Also being contested on day two was the men’s shot put final. Ryan Crouser is the defending Olympic Champion from both Rio and Tokyo, and was competing to earn a spot on the team to do what no other shot putter has done before: go back-to-back-to-back for Olympic gold. Joe Kovacs came into the meet as the hottest shot putter in the world, having won the LA Grand Prix and Pre Classic, in addition to having a season bast mark of 23.13 meters.
Ahead of the meet, Crouser revealed that he had been dealing with injuries since March, requiring surgery in his right elbow in addition to suffering a torn pec. Making sure he did enough in qualifying on day one to make it to the finals (throwing one time, a mark of 21.44m), he came out the gates swinging on day two.
All Crouser and Kovacs would need was their first throw of the final, posting marks within one centimeter of each other, Ryan held the lead with 22.44m and Joe solidly in second with 22.43m. The competition could have ended there, and their tickets would have been punched.
While Kovacs, who was the previous day’s top qualifier, would not improve on his opening round throw, Crouser would let a big one go in the fourth round, throwing a season best 22.84 meters, solidifying his Olympic Trials win, and opening the door for him to make history in Paris next month.
Payton Otterdahl rounded out the podium for the men’s shot put, throwing 22.26m in the fifth round to move into the third and final position to make Team USA.
Full results from the Olympic Trials are available here from USATF
WATCH: Ryan Crouser wins shot put at Trials, bound for third Olympics
