Paris 2024: Sha'Carri Richardson handed a huge boost as Shericka Jackson vacates 100m spot

Sha'Carri Richardson and Shericka Jackson at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest

Paris 2024: Sha'Carri Richardson handed a huge boost as Shericka Jackson vacates 100m spot

Funmilayo Fameso 13:48 - 31.07.2024

Following Shericka Jackson vacating her 100m Spot to compete, Sha'carri Richardson now has a solid position to win the Olympic title at Paris 2024 Olympics.

Sha'Carri Richardson has been handed a huge boost of winning her first Olympic title in Paris, following Shericka Jackson vacating her 100m spot to another Jamaican sprinter.

Reports first broke out in Paris with indications that Jackson, had been substituted with Sashalee Forbes to run the 100m dash. It will later be confirmed by Jamaica's team manager Ludlow Watts while speaking with @TvjNewscentre.

Shericka Jackson is out of the women's 100m race in Paris || Imago

"(Jackson) has given up her place in the 100 meters... all the information that we can provide is that she is not going to participate in the 100m," he said.

Jackson's fitness has been a doubt since July 9 when she competed at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary, where she pulled up coming down the home stretch and limped off the track before she was seen with a taped knee.

Following the injury scare, her physiotherapist Troy Evans later confirmed via his Instagram page that it wasn't a serious one and she only had a cramp in her hamstring.

With the glimmer of hope raised, track fans and enthusiasts were already anticipating a spectacular clash with her American rival, who stands on paper as the woman to beat with her world-leading time of 10.71s.

As Jamaica's fastest 100m runner this year with 10.84s to win their Olympic Trials, she was expected to lower this time and gun for revenge after falling to Richardson's supremacy at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.

Sha'Carri Richardson is now the outright favourite to win the Olympic title in Paris

However, the latest development further strengthens Richardson's position as the outright favourite for the Olympic title, though St Lucia's star Julien Alfred and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are still in the mix to pull a major upset.

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