Sha'Carri Richardson caps comeback by winning star-studded 100m at worlds - ESPN

BUDAPEST, Hungary — -- American Sha'Carri Richardson won the women's 100-meter world title Monday, outsprinting a star-studded field to take a gold medal two years after a positive marijuana test derailed her Olympic dreams.

Running on the far outside in Lane 9, Richardson finished in 10.65 seconds to match the year's best time and set the world-championship record.

She beat Jamaicans Shericka Jackson by .07 seconds and five-time champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce by .12.

«I'm here, I told y'all,» she told the track announcer right after the race. «I'm not back, I'm better.»

This was Richardson's first major competition on the world stage and she was listed even though she came in as the American champion and had bested Jackson, who also has run 10.65 this year, the previous two times they met in 2023.

The race featured four of the eight fastest runners of all time, including Marie-Josée Ta Lou, who finished fourth.

Though it was clear Richardson had finished ahead of all those runners to her left in the gold-medal race, the 23-year-old looked stunned when she crossed the line.

She blew a kiss toward the sky, cast her eyes on that beautiful scoreboard and walked toward the stands in a daze to accept the American flag and congratulations from Fraser-Pryce, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and others.

What a comeback story it was — and just in time for the buildup to the Paris Olympics, which start less than 12 months from now.

Richardson appeared ready to become America's next sprint star when she cruised to a win at Olympic trials two years ago. But that victory quickly came off the books after she tested positive for marijuana — a doping violation she readily admitted, saying she was in a bad place after the recent death of