ATHLETICS

Photo Credit: Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa

Tigst Assefa broke the women's world record by more than two minutes Sunday at the Berlin Marathon, as Eliud Kipchoge won the men's race for the fifth time but couldn't break his own record.

Ethiopian runner Assefa, the winner in Berlin a year ago, ran the race in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 53 seconds to break the previous women's record of 2:14:04 set by Kenya's Brigid Kosgei at the Chicago Marathon in 2019.

Assefa sank to her knees after crossing the line and raised her arms, then celebrated with the flag of Ethiopia. She was nearly six minutes clear of any other runner in Sunday's marathon, with Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya second in 2:17:49 and Tanzania's Magdalena Shauri third in 2:18:41.

Photo Credit: Petr David Josek

The American women’s 4x400 relay team was disqualified from the preliminary round at the world championships Saturday after their third and fourth runners in the four-lap race bungled the baton exchange.

Quanera Hayes missed on several attempts to hand the stick to anchor runner Alexis Holmes. When they finally did make the exchange, they were out of the legal passing zone.

Photo Credit: LAPRESSE

Jamaican athlete Andrew Hudson is set to compete in the 200 meters final this Friday alongside nine other athletes.

This decision was reached by the judges who determined that he did not compete under equal conditions with his opponents.

Hudson, along with fellow athletes, experienced an accident while being transported to the stadium in a vehicle.

Although initially deemed a minor collision with another golf buggy, Hudson stressed that he experienced pain in one eye.

Upon examination by medical services, it was discovered that he had a fragment of glass in his eye. Despite his difficulties, he insisted in running.

Photo Credit: Martin Meissner

American Sha’Carri Richardson won the women's 100-meter world title Monday, outsprinting a star-studded field to take a gold medal two years after a positive marijuana test derailed her Olympic dreams.

Running on the far outside in Lane 9, Richardson finished in 10.65 seconds to match the year's best time and set the world-championship record.

She beat Jamaicans Shericka Jackson by .07 seconds and five-time champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce by .12.

“I’m here, I told y’all,” she told the track announcer right after the race. “I’m not back, I’m better.”

This was Richardson’s first major competition on the world stage and she was listed as a 5-1 underdog even though she came in as the American champion and had bested Jackson, who also has run 10.65 this year, the previous two times they met in 2023.

The race featured four of the eight fastest runners of all time, including Marie-Josée Ta Lou, who finished fourth.

Photo Credit: The Associated Press

Ignore the wedding band and it could have been 2019 for Simone Biles. Or 2016. Or 2014.

Long before Tokyo. Long before the “twisties.” Long before two years off in which the gymnastics star took a step back, took a long look at the arc of her record-setting career and decided she wasn’t done. Not quite yet.

There she was walking onto the floor at NOW Arena on Friday on the eve of the U.S. Classic, her first meet since winning bronze on balance beam at the delayed 2020 Olympics, a medal she called among the sweetest she’s ever earned.

There she was laughing with her teammates. There she was running and stretching and flipping — and yes, occasionally twisting — with the casual ease she summoned so regularly when the seven-time Olympic medalist was at her peak.