Thompson Herah, Richardson face off against stacked Prefontaine 100m field

EUGENE, Oregon (CMC):

A SPICY showdown between Elaine Thompson Herah, of Jamaica, and Sha’Carri Richardson, of the United States, will be one of the headline acts of the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday.

The two track darlings will feature in a hotly contested women’s 100 metres dash at Hayward Field in the American city of Eugene in the state of Oregon that also features world indoor 60m champion Julian Alfred of St Lucia and Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith of the Ivory Coast.

The Classic is extra special for Thompson Herah because she earned the label “the fastest woman alive” three years ago when she clocked 10.54 seconds over the distance – a time that was only five hundredths-of-a-second off the world record of deceased American star, Florence Griffith-Joyner.

Thompson Herah is a two-time Olympic double sprint champion, but the past year was quite rocky after she split with iconic coach Stephen Francis and struggled to find her form since the parting of ways.

Richardson, the reigning world 100 champion, will be running her first race over this distance for the year, but she got her legs in tune with a couple of 200s earlier in the season and, given that she ran sub-11 seconds throughout last year, the showdown holds much intrigue.

Alfred made history with her world indoor title in Glasgow, Scotland, earlier this year, and facing runners the calibre of Thompson Herah and Richardson will be a good indication of how much she has progressed this season.

Ta Lou-Smith, 35, will also be looking to create an upset while celebrating her marriage to Trinidadian J. Smith after she produced a scintillating run to win the women 100 in 10.91 seconds at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational meet, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver event, on May 11.

Ta Lou-Smith was making her individual season debut, and her performances moved her to third on this season’s world-leading times list after she got a decent start and went into overdrive at the halfway stage before going on to claim a clear win.

Another mouth-watering duel is in store when world indoor men’s 60 champion Christian Coleman of the United States meets Ackeem Blake of Jamaica in the men’s 100.

The men’s 110 hurdles is also expected to be a heated affair, with three-time world champion Grant Holloway of the United States down to face a field that includes five who raced in last year’s World Championships final in Budapest, including silver medallist Hansle Parchment of Jamaica and American bronze medallist Daniel Roberts.

The women’s 100m hurdles will not count towards Diamond League points totals, but it will be more potential previews for global championships.

Women who account for five of the year’s six fastest times, all of whom are separated by fractions of a second, will face off in the hurdles, including world indoor champion Devynne Charlton, of The Bahamas, and two-time world champion Danielle Williams, of Jamaica.