The Women’s 100m will be must-see TV at the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday, May 28.

Reigning double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, Olympic 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson and controversial American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson are all down to compete in the showpiece event.

Thompson-Herah has the fastest season’s best heading into the race having run 10.89 to win her heat at the USATF Golden Games on April 16. She also ran 10.93 at the Puerto Rico International Athletics Classic on May 12 and 10.94 at the JAAA/SDF Jubilee Series at the National Stadium in Kingston on May 21.

Jackson has only run three 100m races so far this season with her best coming on May 7 when she ran 11.00 to win at the JAAA/SDF Jubilee Series at the National Stadium in Kingston. She also ran 11.12 for second at the Birmingham Diamond League on May 21 behind British 2019 World 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith, who will also be in the field in Eugene.

Richardson, who missed the Olympics last year after testing positive for marijuana at the US Olympic Trials, made her season debut on May 21 at the Duval County Challenge in Jacksonville running 11.27 to win.

The field will be rounded out by Ivorian speedster Marie Jose Talou, Jamaican Olympic 4x100m relay gold medallist Briana Williams, recently crowned World Indoor 60m champion Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland and Americans Teahna Daniels and Twanisha Terry.

Elaine Thompson-Herah, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic triple gold medalist, will take on American upstart Sha ‘Carri Richardson and a stacked field that includes the Olympic 100m silver and bronze medalists Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, respectively, in a blue-ribbon showdown at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meet on Saturday, August 21 in Eugene, Oregon.

Thompson-Herah, who won the 100/200m double at the 2016 Rio Olympics, created history in Tokyo earlier this month when she became the first woman to successfully defend both titles at the same Olympics.

She won the 100m in an Olympic record of 10.61, eclipsing the 10.62 set by Florence Griffith-Joyner at Seoul in 1988 and followed up by winning the 200m in a personal best of 21.53, which made her the second-fastest woman in history.

She then added a third gold medal as a member of Jamaica’s 4x100m sprint relay team that established a new national record of 41.02.

The 21-year-old Richardson, who ran a personal best 10.72 in April, won the 100m at US trials in July in 10.86. However, she was subsequently banned for a month after testing positive for THC, a derivative of marijuana. Her omission triggered a debate about whether she would have won had she been allowed to compete in Tokyo.

However, the much-touted American will not only be facing the Olympic champion in the blue-ribbon sprint. She is also facing a motivated Fraser-Pryce, the second-fastest woman in the world this year and the third fastest all time, who is likely to be still smarting from her loss in the Olympic 100m final.

The 34-year-old two-time Olympic champion (2008, 2012) was considered the overwhelming favourite to land a third 100m Olympic title following her 10.63s run at the National Stadium in Kingston on June 5. However, she finished second to Thompson-Herah in 10.74.

The Olympic 100m bronze medalist Jackson, who ran a personal best 10.76 in Tokyo, has also been included in the line-up that will also feature, Tokyo relay gold medalist Briana Williams (10.97), Teahna Daniels (10.98), Javiane Oliver (10.96) and Marie Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast, who ran a personal best 10.78 in Tokyo.

Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji who has run a season-best 10.96, is also listed for the clash that is perhaps the fastest field ever assembled.