BUDAPEST — A meet record by a World Championships newcomer in the women's 100 and a third straight win by one of history's greatest men's 110-meter hurdles athletes helped raise Team USATF's medal total to nine, five of them gold, on Day 3 of the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Center. The U.S. also has a commanding lead in the team point standings with 92, 60 ahead of Ethiopia. Making her international debut a historic one, Sha'Carri Richardson stunned two-time defending champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica and set a World Championships record of 10.65 in the women's 100, becoming the first time qualifier to ever win and moving to fifth on the all-time world performer list. Richardson, who had a nervous wait to see if her 10.84 was enough to grab a spot in the final after placing third in her semifinal, was composed and ran a magnificent race in lane nine, overtaking Shericka Jackson of Jamaica in the final 20 meters to win the first dash title for the U.S. since 2017. Jackson crossed the line in 10.72, with Fraser-Pryce taking bronze in 10.77. Brittany Brown was seventh in 10.97 and Tamari Davis placed ninth in 11.03. Three-peat! Two-time reigning world champion Grant Holloway was never challenged in the men's 110H, roaring to a 12.96 to take gold and turn back Olympic champion Hansle Parchment of Jamaica, who was the runner-up in 13.07. Daniel Roberts made the podium in his third World Championships appearance, taking bronze in 13.09, with Freddie Crittenden fourth in a season best 13.16. In 2019 and 2022, Roberts won the USATF title but was disqualified in the heats at the Worlds. Powering out of the blocks, Holloway got to the first barrier in his traditional seven strides with a gap over Roberts, and then cleanly cleared the next nine hurdles to become the first man to win three straight golds since the late Greg Foster did it in 1983-1991. It was the ninth time Team USATF earned two medals in the event. Competing in his seventh straight World Championships triple jump, two-time silver medalist and two-time bronze medalist Will Claye hit his longest jump in round two, a mark that placed him seventh. Chris Benard finished ninth with a best of 16.62/54-6.5. Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso bounded 17.64/57-10.5 on his fifth attempt to take gold by more than eight inches over Cuba's Lazaro Martinez, the first world title ever for the African nation. Another Cuban, Cristian Napoles, earned bronze. When the final throw in the men's discus hit the ground, Sweden's Daniel Stahl regained the title he won in 2019, and he did it in meet record style. Stahl, who trailed Slovenia's Kristjan Ceh in a battle of giants after Ceh went 70.02/229-9 on the penultimate throw, nailed his sixth attempt with a 71.46/234-5. That broke Ceh's Championships Record of 71.13/233-4, set in winning at Oregon22. Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania took bronze at 68.85/225-10, while Brian Williams finished ninth with a 63.62/208-9 in round two.
A perfect four-for-four for Team USATF meant that a third of the final field would be Americans. Reigning world and Olympic champion Katie Moon had no misses on her three attempts, and high schooler Hana Moll had only one miss, going over an American U20 record 4.65/15-3 on her second try. It was the highest outdoor clearance ever by a U20 athlete. Three-time silver medalist Sandi Morris and international newcomer Bridget Williams had a rougher go of it but also made the auto-qualifying height of 4.65/15-3.
All three Team USATF athletes qualified for the semifinal. 2019 world champion and former world record holder Dalilah Muhammad used her vast experience to easily advance from the first heat with a second-place finish in 54.21. A very aggressive early pace by Anna Cockrell put her safely in qualifying position in heat two, and she cruised down the final straight to take second in 54.68. USATF champion Shamier Little went out extremely quickly in the final heat and held a big lead coming into the last 100 but was caught at the line by Britain's Jessie Knight and took second in 54.40 to move on to the semifinal.
The second- and third-fastest men in history lined up in semifinal two in outside lanes, with Oregon22 silver medalist and American record holder Rai Benjamin in seven and reigning champion Alison dos Santos of Brazil in eight. Both men charged out and ran even down the backstretch. France's Ludvy Vaillant made a move on the final bend but couldn't make a dent as Benjamin held a small advantage over the final hurdle and to the finish, winning in 47.24 with dos Santos second in 47.38. Last year's bronze medalist, Trevor Bassitt, was in the outside lane and had world record holder Karsten Warholm four lanes to his inside in the final semi. Warholm stormed out of the blocks as he always does, and Jamaican youngster Roshawn Clarke was going with him through the first five hurdles. Bassitt was fifth at the halfway mark and had a lot of ground to make up. With three barriers remaining it was Warholm with a half-second gap on Clarke, and Bassitt was not far off the pace. Those three pushed to the finish and Warholm won in 47.09, the fastest overall, with Clarke smashing the world U20 record with a 47.34 in second. Bassitt set a PB of 47.38 in third to nab a berth in the final as the fastest non-auto qualifier. Needing to place in the top two to be assured of a spot in the final, CJ Allen chased Jamaica's Jaheel Hyde and Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands in semifinal one and was almost a half-second adrift at the halfway point. Coming off hurdle eight, Allen was still in third and he held that position to the line, placing third in 48.44. That wasn't enough to put him in the top two fastest non-automatic qualifiers overall.
Using every bit of energy she had in the final 20 meters of semifinal two, Talitha Diggs garnered a runner-up finish in 50.86 to automatically advance to the final. Diggs was in lane nine and was passed early by Jamaica's Nickisha Pryce, coming into the last straight with a big gap to overcome. The final semi had Lynna Irby-Jackson in lane four, and despite running a very solid 50.71 she ended up third and did not secure a finals berth, missing out by only .09 seconds. A full list of results along with a schedule of events can be found here. *Records subject to usual ratification procedures
Ryan Crouser, men's shot put (23.51/77-1.75, championships record) Mixed 4x400, Justin Robinson, Rosey Effiong, Matthew Boling, Alexis Holmes (3:08.80, world record) Noah Lyles, men's 100 (9.83, =world lead) Grant Holloway, men's 110H (12.96) Sha'Carri Richardson, women's 100 (10.65, championships record)
Anna Hall, women's heptathlon (6,720 points) Tara Davis-Woodhall, women's long jump (6.91/22-8)
Joe Kovacs, men's shot put (22.12/72-7) Daniel Roberts, men's 110H (13.09)