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American sprint queen Sha’Carri Richardson has lived up to her star status as she chased down the field off scratch to win the 2026 Stawell Gift in a thrilling finish.
The Olympic 100m silver medallist and sixth-fastest woman in the world joined hundreds of local spectators and athletes in the small rural town 200km north-west of Melbourne on Monday to take part in the handicap race for the first time.
The Stawell Gift is Australia’s oldest and richest running race, with the 120m distance being one of the country’s most prestigious athletics events. Athletes run on grass from a mark determined by their form and ability.
In the 144th edition on Easter Monday in Stawell, the 26-year-old Richardson crossed the line in the women’s final with a record time of 13.15 seconds, in front of Charlotte Nielsen in second (13.20s) and Chiara Santiglia in third (13.36s).
But it nearly wasn’t to be after Richardson eased up in her semi-final, standing tall as she finished instead of dipping on the line and only pipping Halle Martin by seven thousandths of a second to book her final berth.
The final started in her favour, however, with a false start by 17-year-old Grace Crowe in the lane next to Richardson. Crowe was forced to move her blocks back one metre to 3.25m, providing Richardson – starting at 0m – a closer target to chase.
Nielsen started with a nine-metre handicap and led the six women for most of the distance until Richardson closed her down in the final metres.
Although the American promised to run through the line in the final after the photo-finish in the semis – something she said she was working on with coach Dennis Mitchell – Richardson again appeared to stand up rather than lean forward as she crossed, just five hundredths of a second the difference this time.
Richardson becomes the third woman to win from scratch and takes home $40,000 in prize money. Nielsen pockets $6,250 for her second-place finish – a consolation prize for a time that would have got her first in every previous edition of the race.
“I think I realised I was going to win right past 90 [metres],” Richardson said after the race.
“The love, the support, the true enjoyment that I had on the track … I know everybody’s having here.
“Y’all made this moment happen. So thank you.”
The Stawell Gift would have offered a stark change in racing environment for elite sprinters like Richardson and her partner, Christian Coleman. The pair are probably not used to banging their blocks into grass with a mallet on a field cordoned off with flags strung between wheelie bins.
In the men’s 120m final, Australian Olufemi Komolafe won in an impressive 11.93s off a five-metre start, with Jake Ireland second in 12.07s.
Komolafe, 21, who is a fourth-year medical student, was disappointed not to line up against his “idol” Coleman, which had been his motivation to enter the race to begin with.
Coleman did not make the cut for the men’s 120m final, finishing fifth in his semi-final off scratch.
“I gave it everything I got,” he said after the semi-final. “You give them that much of a margin, it’s pretty tough.
“I hope everybody continues to watch and support [athletics]. I’m definitely looking forward to a really good season, trying to improve over that last 40 to 100. And so I feel really good about it.”
