Colourful American sprinter Sha ‘Carri Richardson booked her ticket to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday night (June 19) when she sped to victory in the final of the Women’s 100m at the United States Olympic trials at Hayward, Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Competing with bright orange hair, the outspoken and flamboyant 21-year-old, running into a headwind of -1.1m/s managed to get by Javianne Oliver late in the race to win in 10.86. Oliver was also under 11 seconds, stopping the clock in 10.99s to book her ticket to Japan.

Teahna Daniels, the 2019 US champion, will be the third individual starter in Japan for the USA as she finished third in 11.03.

Notwithstanding the wind, Richardson’s time in the final proved to be anti-climactic given the teaser she gave the worldwide audience in the semi-final when she unleashed a devastating burst of speed that blew away the field before she deliberately slowed at 70m and began pointing at the infield clock that registered a mind-blowing 10.64s as she crossed the finish line.

However, the time was aided by a trailing wind of 2.6m/s.

That aside, she was elated to make her first USA Olympic team and ran into the stands to hug her grandmother Betty Harp and together shed bittersweet tears. She would later explain the sad news that might have contributed their expressions of emotion.

“My grandmother is my heart. My grandmother is my superwoman. Honestly, that was one of my biggest goals in life – to have her see me compete in one of the highest levels, and be successful,” during a rambling post-race interview.

“From Day 1 up until now, always being in my corner, no matter what I did, no matter if it was good, no matter if it was bad.”

She revealed that her biological mother, who had reportedly abandoned her at birth, had recently passed.

“That’s not anything I want to talk about, so I’m not going to get too much into details, but what I will say is I am grateful for her giving me life, bringing me into this world.”

The orange hair, she said, was picked out by her girlfriend.

“She said it like spoke to her, the fact that it was just so loud and vibrant, and that’s who I am,” Richardson said.

Meanwhile, the men’s semi-finals and finals set for Sunday night are promising to be thrilling affairs. Trayvon Brommell, who at 9.77 is the fastest man in the world this year, will vie for a spot in the final along with Marvin Bracy, the second fastest man in the world this year, as well as Isiah Young and quarter-miler turned short sprinter Fred Kerley.

Also in the semi-finals is the 39-year-old 2004 Olympic Champion Justin Gatlin, who ran a wind-aided 9.93 to advance from the preliminary round.

Fan favourite Allyson Felix, who is attempting to make her fifth Olympic Games, advanced to the finals of the 400m running 51.01 for second place in her heat and automatically qualify for Sunday night’s final along with the likes of Quanera Hayes, who ran the fastest semi-final time of 50.07, Wadeline Jonathas (50.24), Kaylin Whitney (50.35) and Kendall Ellis, who won Felix’s heat in 50.83.

Lynna Irby, Taylor Manson and Shae Anderson also advanced to the final.

Among the men, 2021 NCAA Champion Randolph Ross, Olympic medal favourite Michael Norman, Michael Cherry and Will London all ran under 45 seconds to advance to the final of the men’s 400m.

The US trials started with a bang on Friday night when Ryan Crouser, the 2016 Rio Olympic champion, obliterated the 31-year-old shot put record of 23.12m held by fellow American Randy Barnes when he threw an astounding 23.37m to win the competition over Joe Kovacs.

Kovacs beat Crouser by one centimeter to win the World title in Doha in 2019.