Aussie teen blows minds after ‘insane’ win over world champ
An Aussie teenager has announced herself on the world stage with a staggering upset win over an Olympic legend
Athletics
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A star has been born.
Aussie teenager Torrie Lewis has stunned the athletics world to win the women’s 200m in her debut Diamond League appearance.
The 19-year-old produced a devastating finish from Lane 9 to upset world 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson in the Diamond League season opener in Xiamen, China, on Saturday night.
Richardson, who also won world bronze for Team USA in the 200m in Budapest last year, looked to have victory sewn up but hadn’t counted on Lewis way out on the furthest side of the track.
Lewis tipped Richardson with a final lunge at the line to win by jut 0.03 seconds with a time of 22.96 seconds.
It is a sizzling performance to put down with less than 100 days to go before the start of the Paris Olympics.
Lewis said she was shocked, not having expected to win against a high-calibre field.
“No, not at all! My goal was honestly just to hold on as long as I could. I was in lane nine so I knew they’d all be chasing me,” Lewis said.
“I just did nationals on Sunday so came straight here from that. And this is most of their season openers so I knew I had an edge coming in but I wasn’t sure because I’ve never raced them.
“I honestly didn’t notice I’d beaten them until I saw the replay and it was like ‘Holy crap!’ It was so surreal beating Sha’Carri.
“I just did Nationals on Sunday and came here straight from that. I know that this was their (competitors) season opener so I knew I had an edge coming in but I just wasn’t entirely sure because I had never raced those athletes before.”
Lewis ran the second fastest 200m of her career, edging closer to breaking Raelene Boyle’s 56-year old Australian Under 20 record as well as the Olympic qualifying standard of 22.57.
Richardson, however, said she was not phased by the surprise upset.
“It’s kind of late for me in the season to open up,” said Richardson. “I was a little nervous but once I was on the track it felt like home.
“I felt really good with this first performance. I know what I’ve got to work on.”
Her performance blew many commentators away.
The World Athletics’ official account on Twitter wrote: “A star is born”.
Aussie Olympian, and three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Tamsyn Manou posted: “Go the Aussies!!! Stewy McSweyn so close to that Olympic standard in a ripping run over 5000m and Torrie Lewis just beat a field that included the 100m world champion over 200m. Our Aussies are awesome. Bring on Paris!”
Code Sports journalist Lachlan McKirdy posted on Twitter the performance was “insane”.
One athletics fan Twitter account wrote: “Torrie Lewis shocks the world”.
There was no such drama for Christian Coleman in the men’s 100m, the American holding his composure after his trademark fast start misfired for the win in 10.13sec, teammate Fred Kerley in second at 0.04sec.
“I’ll put that in the bank and keep getting better,” said Coleman.
“Usually I’m out 20-30 metres in a race but today I felt I was a step behind. “I feel really good about the fact that I was able to stay composed, stay in my lane and put together a good race.”
There was no such drama for Christian Coleman in the men’s 100m, the American holding his composure after his trademark fast start misfired for the win in 10.13sec, teammate Fred Kerley in second at 0.04sec.
Elsewhere, Sweden’s Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis opened his outdoor season in stunning fashion on Saturday as he bettered his own pole vault world record.
Duplantis, the reigning Olympic, two-time world and European champion, fired out a warning to any potential rivals at this summer’s Paris Games by sailing over 6.24 metres at his first attempt at the Egret Stadium to improve by 1cm his previous best set in Eugene last year.
The US-born 24-year-old entered the competition at 5.62m, clearing 5.82 and 6.00m before setting the new world record — his eighth in the discipline, each by 1cm since first breaking the record in February 2020 in Torun, Poland.
A loaded 100m hurdles saw Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn come from behind to take the win in a meeting record of 12.45sec.
Two other reigning world champions secured victories, Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic winning the women’s 400m in 50.08sec while Canada’s Marco Arop claimed the men’s 800m in a rapid 1:43.61.
In the field, American Shelby McEwen claimed victory with a best of 2.27m ahead of Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim in the men’s high jump and Cuban-born Portuguese Pedro Pichardo won the men’s triple jump with 17.51m.
China had one winner in the shape of Olympic champion Lijao Gong in the women’s shot put (19.72m), with local athletes having another chance to shine as the Diamond League moves on to Suzhou next weekend
Originally published as Aussie teen blows minds after ‘insane’ win over world champ
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