JACKSONVILLE, FL —— Despite not running a fast time, Sha’Carri Richardson made her well-anticipated return to the track this weekend (21) at the 2022 Duval County Challenge American Track League meeting held at the Jax Track at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, FL.
Good To See Sha’Carri Richardson Back In Action
After missing in action competitively for eight months and withdrawing from her previous three scheduled meetings, Richardson graced us with her presence on Saturday night after competing twice even though the weather wasn’t conducive for sprinting.
The spotlighted American sprinter opened her 2022 campaign with a fourth place 11.37 seconds (-1.5 m/s) performance in the women’s 100 meters before returning later in the night to improve on that time with a 11.27 (-0.1 m/s) performance to win an added exhibition race.
Following months of speculations about how fast she had been running in training, many track and field fans were eager to see how fast Richardson would go in her season opener.
READ MORE: 2022 Duval County Challenge results; Sha’Carri Richardson finally makes her return
However, poor weather conditions, which resulted in several adjustments to the meet starting time and the order of events schedule, lessen the likelihood of fast times on the night.
The attention was then turn to see how well Richardson would fare against some of the athletes who had already posted quick times this season.
She didn’t do so well on the first attempt after fading to fourth place behind Aleia Hobbs (11.28), Brittany Brown (11.30) and Twanisha “TeeTee” Terry (11.34).
Richardson, however, returned for an unscheduled second 100m EXTRA Exhibition race at around 9:40 pm ET and got the better of her four other challengers, including Terry, who had finished ahead of her in the first race.
Richardson’s winning time in the EXTRA Exhibition race was 11.27 secs, which isn’t setting the world alight, but the fact that she finished ahead of Terry, who has already broken 11.00 seconds this season and World Indoor Championships 60m bronze medalist Marybeth Sant-Price, is a sign that she is certainly back!
Sha’Carri Richardson Beating TeeTee Terry Proves What?
Looking at Terry’s resume so far this term, we can see that the former USC NCAA standout has posted quality wind-aided sub-11 seconds times of 10.77 (+3.3 m/s), 10.95 (+3.0) and 10.96 (+5.0) for the 100m —thus this could be used to measure where we think Richardson currently sits in her preparations for this campaign.
At the same time too, Terry also has a wind-legal 10.94 (1.3 m/s) season’s best and ran 11.01 (2.0 m/s) in San Juan Capistrano, California, in her previous race before traveling to Jacksonville, this weekend.
So the fact that Richardson was able to beat her fellow American and more race-sharp compatriot while doing so with a much stronger second half of the race, we can definitely expect to see more of the spotlighted sprinter this season as we prepare for the 2022 U.S. Trials and the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, later this summer.
With Gary Smith’s added information
