Defending champion Sha’Carri Richardson scraped into the 100 metres final at the World Athletics Championships on Sunday, qualifying as one of the two fastest losers.

The 25-year-old American rose from one of the two trackside seats reserved for the fastest losers, having sat through the other two semi-finals, and did an impression of aiming a fist at a punch bag.

Richardson, last year’s Olympic silver medallist, had a dreadful start after receiving a warning for falling over the start line, but she fought her way into third spot to time 11.00sec.

Veteran Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith, a 100m world silver medallist in 2017, and Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, herself a two-time runner-up in the 100m final, took the automatic spots.

Neither of them looked as sublime as Olympic champion Julien Al

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