Sha'Carri Richardson breezes into women's 100m semis on Olympic debut at Paris 2024

American track and field star Sha'Carri Richardson announced herself on the Olympic stage with a 10.94 to reach the women’s 100m semi-finals at Paris 2024.

The reigning 100m world champion is making her Olympic debut at 24 and carries the tag of favourite ahead of Saturday’s final.

Richardson is the fastest woman this year, having posted a 10.71 in June, and on Friday (2 August) she advanced to the semi-finals after comfortably winning her Round One heat at the Stade de France.

Her time of 10.94 was the fourth fastest overall, with Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith setting the pace with a 10.87 ahead of sprint legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and British hope Daryll Neita (both 10.92).

The women’s 100m semi-final takes place at 19:50 local time on Saturday, with the final taking place later that night at 21:20, where Jamaica’s Fraser-Pryce could be among the sprinters aiming to shock Richardson.

“I’m not back, I’m better,” Richardson famously declared after winning the world champs in August, and on Friday that was plain for all to see.

Amid the hype and expectation, and after missing out on Tokyo 2020, Richardson laid down a marker in Paris in front of a packed Stade de France.

The colourful wigs have gone but those trademark long fingernails remain, and she cut a steely figure on the starting blocks.

That all changed though after she got the business done, flashing a huge smile to the crowd after finishing metres ahead of the chasing pack in the opening heat.

Richardson went just 0.01 seconds better than rival Julien Alfred, who posted 10.95 in the second heat, while Great Brtain’s Neita impressed with a season’s best 10.92 to win the third heat.

The fastest time overall came in the eighth and final heat, when 35-year-old Ta Lou-Smith of the Côte d'Ivoire - fourth in the 100m finals at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 - finished with a 10.87, just 0.05 seconds faster than Fraser-Pryce.

Eight athletes went sub-11 seconds overall, setting up a mouth-watering showdown on Saturday.