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Sha'Carri Richardson was not troubled as she started her quest to claim a first Olympics title with an easy run into the semi-finals but Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith fired an early warning.
Sha’Carri Richardson made light work of her opponents as she made it into the women’s 100m semi-final at the Paris Olympics on Friday.
Richardson was not quick off the blocks but her rivals could not match her pace as she had a strong finishing kick to easily win the race.
The world champion produced great top-end speed to leave a big gap between herself and her rivals to claim victory in 10.94 seconds. Patrizia van der Weken of the Netherlands was second in 11.14 while Australian Bree Masters clocked 11.26 for third place.
The second heat was won by Julien Alfred who shrugged off a strong challenge from Australian Zoe Hobbs to win the race in 10.95 while the former clocked 11.03. Zaynab Dosso of Italy clocked 11.30 for third place.
Meanwhile, Great Britain’s Daryll Neita recorded a Season’s Best 10.92 to win the third heat in what was a fast race.
Neita beat American Melissa Jefferson who had to settle for second place in 10.96 while Boglarka Takacs of Hungary timed 11.10 for the third and final automatic spot.
In the fourth heat, Canadian Audrey Leduc claimed a win in 10.96 followed by Jamaican Tia Clayton (11.00) and Imani Lansiquot of Britain (11.10) while the fifth heat saw Ewa Swoboda of Poland claim a win in a season’s best 10.99 followed by Britain’s Dina-Asher Smith (11.01) and Rosemary Chwukuma of Nigeria (11.26) in second and third positions respectively.
Meanwhile, the sixth heat went to American Twanisha Terry (11.15), Jamaica’s Shashalee Forbes (11.19) and Lea Bertrand of Trinidad and Tobago (11.27) who swept the podium positions as Mariam Gina Bass of The Gambia (11.01), Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland (11.05) and Delphine Nkansa (11.20) of Belgium claimed the top three positions in the seventh heat.
Africa’s fastest woman Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith clocked the fastest time in the heats to win the final round in 10.87 ahead of former Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who is featuring at her final Olympics, and managed 10.92.
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