Sha’Carri Richardson won in her first 100m race of the season at the USATF LA Grand Prix on Sunday.
Richardson, the 2023 World champion and 2024 Olympic silver medalist, clocked 10.99 seconds to beat a field that included training partner Kayla White (11.08), who joined Richardson on the 2025 World 4x100m champion team.
Richardson prevailed into a slight headwind (.2 meters/second), becoming the 12th American to break 11 seconds so far in 2026.
“I feel good for it to be a season opener,” she told Lewis Johnson on NBC Sports. “I definitely am just prepared to keep training, keep running and just finish out the season stronger than before.”
Richardson last raced the 100m at the September 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. She placed fifth in 10.94 in her world title defense, her best time of a season that was set back from the start due to an injury that February.
The new world champion in the 100m is Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who trains with Richardson and White in Central Florida but was not in the field in LA, which hosts the Olympics and Paralympics in 2028.
Earlier Sunday, two-time Olympic 200m silver medalist Kenny Bednarek took the men’s 100m in 9.72 seconds, aided by a 2.4 meter/second tailwind, just above the limit of 2.0 for record purposes.
Bednarek, whose legal personal best is 9.79, became the second-fastest American in history across all wind conditions. Only Tyson Gay has run faster -- an American record 9.69 from 2009, plus a wind-aided 9.68 and a legal 9.71.
Bednarek beat a field Sunday that included Olympic 200m gold medalist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana (fifth place, 9.95).
Olympic gold medalist Masai Russell took the 100m hurdles in 12.26 seconds, a time no woman other than Russell has beaten this year.
On May 23, Russell ran 12.14, just missing the world record of 12.12 set by Nigerian Tobi Amusan in 2022.
In the 110m hurdles, Jamal Britt became the 20th American ever to break 13 seconds.
Britt, 27 and unsponsored, prevailed in 12.99, beating his personal best of 13.07, which he ran four times earlier this year.
He beat a field in LA that included 2022 World silver medalist Trey Cunningham (second, 13.03) and 2025 World champion Cordell Tinch (third, 13.15).
Olympic gold medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall won the long jump with a 7.25-meter leap (with too much tailwind for record purposes).
She also jumped a wind-legal 7.20, improving her personal best by two centimeters to become the joint-19th-best jumper in history.
NBC Sports’ track and field coverage continues with the Pre Classic — the top annual international meet held in the U.S. — on July 3-4, live on NBC and Peacock.
