Global sprint superstar Sha\u2019Carri Richardson has repaid her star billing in spectacular fashion, overcoming a heart-stopping semi-final scare to storm home from scratch and win the women\u2019s Stawell Gift on Easter Monday.<\/p>\n
In front of a packed Central Park in Western Victoria, Richardson gave her rivals up to nine metres\u2019 head start and still proved too strong, charging to victory in 13.15 seconds to become just the third woman in history to win the prestigious 120m handicap race from scratch.<\/p>\n
\u201cSha\u2019Carri\u2019s running her down, running her down, it\u2019s so close \u2026 she\u2019s got up! She\u2019s come from the clouds,\u201d Bruce McAvaney said on Channel 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the moments we will never forget. Stawell has its most famous winner ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s epic, iconic, the stuff of legends. I\u2019m tingling. It\u2019s extraordinary, what she did.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are never, ever going to forget what we just saw.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the win was anything but a straightforward one.<\/p>\n
Just hours earlier, organisers were sweating as the American Olympic and world champion nearly crashed out in the semi-finals. <\/p>\n
After taking time to reel in the field, Richardson edged Ballarat runner Halle Martin by the barest of margins \u2014 just 0.007 seconds \u2014 and even eased up before the line in a moment that almost cost her a place in the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep doing that,\u201d Richardson admitted post-race of her tendency to ease off late. \u201cWe\u2019re working on that \u2026 but running through the line for sure come finals.\u201d<\/p>\n
She clearly learned her lesson.<\/p>\n
When it mattered most, Richardson left nothing to chance \u2014 powering through the line in the decider to cap one of the grittiest wins of her career.<\/p>\n
Richardson\u2019s triumph is a major coup for the Stawell Gift, which pulled off a recruitment masterstroke just to get her to regional Victoria.<\/p>\n
The push was spearheaded by former Gift winner Jason Richardson, who helped lure the American star \u2014 along with partner Christian Coleman \u2014 to the historic meet after Australian drawcards were unavailable due to scheduling clashes.<\/p>\n
What began as a longshot pitch turned into a global PR win, with Richardson sharing her Stawell experience to millions of followers and drawing international attention to the iconic race.<\/p>\n
While Richardson soared, Coleman couldn\u2019t replicate the magic in the men\u2019s event. Also running from scratch, the 2019 world champion was eliminated in the semi-finals after failing to make up ground on runners with big handicaps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough, running on grass, giving that much of a margin,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cThese guys are no slouches.\u201d<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s race also delivered high drama for veteran Aussie Brendan Matthews, who booked a record fifth Stawell Gift final appearance \u2014 but at a cost.<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old edged through his semi-final with a desperate dip at the line before appearing to tear his hamstring and collapsing on the turf.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgony and ecstasy,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cI felt it go \u2026 we\u2019ll see how we go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richardson\u2019s victory may not top her Olympic or world championship titles, but given the unique challenge of the Stawell Gift \u2014 grass surface, handicap start, and unfamiliar race dynamics \u2014 it stands as one of her most hard-earned triumphs.<\/p>\n
Australian Olufemi Komolafe narrowly edged the men\u2019s final ahead of Jake Ireland and Dutch hurdler Liam van der Schaaf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Global sprint superstar Sha\u2019Carri Richardson has repaid her star billing in spectacular fashion, overcoming a heart-stopping semi-final scare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-366076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}