Sanya Richards runs a World Leading time of 48.94 seconds in Zurich (© Getty Images)
Sanya Richards is on a mission, which is saying something at this time in the season, when most World champions start a backwards slide.
Richards showed no sign of post World Championships fatigue here in the Letzigrund Stadium, at the Weltklasse Zürich - ÅF Golden League meeting, tonight. In fact, she said, she felt as fresh as if it was her first race of summer.
Richards ran a world leading women’s 400m time of 48.94 seconds, her quickest for three years and the third fastest of her career. It was far too good a run for Allyson Felix, her fellow American and World 200m champion, even to get close.
Insisting that the $1m Jackpot will not be her main concern in the last of the six Golden League meetings in Brussels next Friday, Richards has set her sights, first and foremost, on improving her United States record of 48.70.
Richards set the mark at the 2006 World Cup, in Athens. “I have two more races – in Brussels and the World Athletics Final – so I think that, if conditions are exactly right, I can maybe run under 48.70,” the 24-year-old Richards said.
The only other occasion on which she has run quicker than tonight was when she clocked 48.92 in the corresponding meeting of 2005. Victory that evening began a sequence of five successive Weltklasse wins including tonight.
However, it is another sequence begun in 2005 which Richards has been glad to see the back of this season – the one in which, despite finishing each year as World No.1, she was unable to secure either a World or Olympic title. But she put that right in Berlin last week.
Now a fifth consecutive year ending as World No.1 is as good as assured and, almost as certain, is a share of the Golden League Jackpot. As 100m runner Kerron Stewart fell by the wayside tonight, only Richards, Yelena Isinbayeva and Kenenisa Bekele remain in contention for all, or a share, of the money.
Having shared in the jackpot in 2006 and 2007, by winning all six of her races in each season, Richards was unable to contest it last year as the women’s 400m was not a Golden League event. The jackpot-winning habit is something that she now takes in her stride.
“The jackpot, for some reason, doesn’t add a lot of pressure and stress to me,” Richards said. “I enjoy the races and so I just feel less stress. I go in very confident that, as long as I execute, I can win my race.”
It was a night when, with the obvious exception of Isinbayeva’s theatrical World Record 5.06m in the Pole Vault, the vast majority of 2009 World champions either were beaten or won with marks inferior to those they had recorded in Berlin. Not Richards.
“It was a lot easier than I anticipated,” Richards said. “I thought I would be a little bit fatigued but I felt really fresh. I told my mum (Sharon) that I feel just like I’ve just been running my first race of the season. I think feeling mentally fresh helps your body feel a lot fresher.
“I felt great out there. I wanted to come out and run sub 49 and I am so happy to finally go under 49 again. I feel like Zurich is almost my third home (after the US and Jamaica, presumably). I come here a lot, my physio is from Switzerland so I come here between races, and I just feel really comfortable here, I really love the fans and they show me a lot of love as well.”
Felix finished as runner-up in 49.83, almost a second behind Richards, while World Championships silver medallist Shericka Williams, from Jamaica, was almost 15 metres down on the winner.
“I always look at who I’m competing against,” Richards said. “I’d competed against everybody else but Allyson added a new dimension to the race with her speed. She got out pretty hard but I stayed with my race and waited to attack when I knew I’d be strong. I was happy she was there – she really set the race up well for me but I focused on myself.
“Every time I step on the track I’m going faster and faster, so it is a great testament to my coach Clyde Hart. We do a great job of reloading and not getting flat as the season progresses. Also, I feel mentally I’m in a great place – I go out with clarity of how I want to compete and I’m able to execute well.”
Had she not been worried that, as World champion, the rest of the field would be out to take her down? “I’ve done that to a couple of World champions myself (in the past) so I know that Zurich is that comeback meet. It is that revenge race and most athletes come out targeting the world champion.
“I knew that, I’ve been on the flipside of that, so I wanted to come out, stay focused, and run a great race.” And a great race she ran – with the promise of even greater to come. And soon.
David Powell for the IAAF
Richards showed no sign of post World Championships fatigue here in the Letzigrund Stadium, at the Weltklasse Zürich - ÅF Golden League meeting, tonight. In fact, she said, she felt as fresh as if it was her first race of summer.
Richards ran a world leading women’s 400m time of 48.94 seconds, her quickest for three years and the third fastest of her career. It was far too good a run for Allyson Felix, her fellow American and World 200m champion, even to get close.
Insisting that the $1m Jackpot will not be her main concern in the last of the six Golden League meetings in Brussels next Friday, Richards has set her sights, first and foremost, on improving her United States record of 48.70.
Richards set the mark at the 2006 World Cup, in Athens. “I have two more races – in Brussels and the World Athletics Final – so I think that, if conditions are exactly right, I can maybe run under 48.70,” the 24-year-old Richards said.
The only other occasion on which she has run quicker than tonight was when she clocked 48.92 in the corresponding meeting of 2005. Victory that evening began a sequence of five successive Weltklasse wins including tonight.
However, it is another sequence begun in 2005 which Richards has been glad to see the back of this season – the one in which, despite finishing each year as World No.1, she was unable to secure either a World or Olympic title. But she put that right in Berlin last week.
Now a fifth consecutive year ending as World No.1 is as good as assured and, almost as certain, is a share of the Golden League Jackpot. As 100m runner Kerron Stewart fell by the wayside tonight, only Richards, Yelena Isinbayeva and Kenenisa Bekele remain in contention for all, or a share, of the money.
Having shared in the jackpot in 2006 and 2007, by winning all six of her races in each season, Richards was unable to contest it last year as the women’s 400m was not a Golden League event. The jackpot-winning habit is something that she now takes in her stride.
“The jackpot, for some reason, doesn’t add a lot of pressure and stress to me,” Richards said. “I enjoy the races and so I just feel less stress. I go in very confident that, as long as I execute, I can win my race.”
It was a night when, with the obvious exception of Isinbayeva’s theatrical World Record 5.06m in the Pole Vault, the vast majority of 2009 World champions either were beaten or won with marks inferior to those they had recorded in Berlin. Not Richards.
“It was a lot easier than I anticipated,” Richards said. “I thought I would be a little bit fatigued but I felt really fresh. I told my mum (Sharon) that I feel just like I’ve just been running my first race of the season. I think feeling mentally fresh helps your body feel a lot fresher.
“I felt great out there. I wanted to come out and run sub 49 and I am so happy to finally go under 49 again. I feel like Zurich is almost my third home (after the US and Jamaica, presumably). I come here a lot, my physio is from Switzerland so I come here between races, and I just feel really comfortable here, I really love the fans and they show me a lot of love as well.”
Felix finished as runner-up in 49.83, almost a second behind Richards, while World Championships silver medallist Shericka Williams, from Jamaica, was almost 15 metres down on the winner.
“I always look at who I’m competing against,” Richards said. “I’d competed against everybody else but Allyson added a new dimension to the race with her speed. She got out pretty hard but I stayed with my race and waited to attack when I knew I’d be strong. I was happy she was there – she really set the race up well for me but I focused on myself.
“Every time I step on the track I’m going faster and faster, so it is a great testament to my coach Clyde Hart. We do a great job of reloading and not getting flat as the season progresses. Also, I feel mentally I’m in a great place – I go out with clarity of how I want to compete and I’m able to execute well.”
Had she not been worried that, as World champion, the rest of the field would be out to take her down? “I’ve done that to a couple of World champions myself (in the past) so I know that Zurich is that comeback meet. It is that revenge race and most athletes come out targeting the world champion.
“I knew that, I’ve been on the flipside of that, so I wanted to come out, stay focused, and run a great race.” And a great race she ran – with the promise of even greater to come. And soon.
David Powell for the IAAF
