Richardson’s glorious runs to Stawell Gift victory

Victory from scratch happens rarely at the Stawell Gift, and certainly not in the fashion that Sha’Carri Richardson did on Easter Monday 2026 at Central Park.

After sauntering through her heat victorious on Saturday in 13.82s* for the 12th fastest time of the day, there was the likelihood that the flamboyant American – the silver medallist over 100m at the Paris Olympics – would make the final on Easter Monday.

In the semi-final she was pushed to the wire, taking the victory in the closing strides to run 13.53* to pip frontmarker Halle Martin (10m) by seven-thousandths-of-a-second: a 0.29 second improvement from the heats.

With the run the second-slowest of the six semi-finals – and the fastest, a 13.27* by Charlotte Nielsen, being 0.26s ahead – it appeared an uphill battle for victory.

Richardson then did what none of the previous scratch winners of Stawell have ever done: She improved again, by more than she did from heat to semi.

Richardson ripped a 13.08s* to take victory from Nielsen by 0.05s, a 0.45s improvement from the semi and 0.74s from the heats. Claims that she covered the first 100m in 10.76 are fantastical+, with the run likely to have been at 11-flat or just under^, an absolutely world-class performance running on grass nonetheless.

^*Not at all to take away from Richardson’s performance, but timing and measurement at Stawell differs from World Athletics regulations. Times in the official results are adjusted based on a formula that takes into account the wind reading, while the front starting block – not the athlete’s fingers – are placed at their starting mark. There’s likely 30-50cm less distance covered by an athlete of Richardson’s size as a result.
+ 10.76 through 100m would mean the final ~20m would need to be covered at ~11.7s pace – a whole second slower – to make for the finishing time.

“Thank you for having me, it feels truly humbling away from home being so appreciated on the track and I’ve just been enjoying it, having such a great time with all of you in Stawell and just knowing this is something that I’ve never experienced before but I’ve overly enjoyed it and I know that this is something that is the first of many,” said Richardson.

Olufemi Komolafe, a 21-year-old medical student from Adelaide won the 144^th edition of the men’s Stawell Gift from 5m in 11.93*.

Komolafe recalled being inspired by Christian Coleman who was run out in the semi-finals today.

“Back in 2019, I was in year nine, my dad had the World Tracks on the whole time, I remember watching his heats, semis and the finals in Doha, it was like a light show with everything and it was such an electric race, watching him win on a 9.76, sixth fastest in history was really inspiring and ever since then that’s been one of my inspirations to really start sprinting.

“I had a lot of ideas about what sport I wanted to pursue but watching him win that really inspired me to take up sprinting.

“I was a soccer player from a very young age and I was always just very fast in school. I would win school meets but I wasn’t really training for sprints… but after school finished that’s when I really started taking sprinting seriously.

Komolafe is coached by Paul Young, the 1985 Stawell Gift winner who also trained last year’s winner John Evans.

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