Jereem ‘The Dream’ Richards failed to im­press at the 50th an­niver­sary of the Pre­fontaine Clas­sic in Eu­gene, Ore­gon, USA on Sat­ur­day where he was fifth in a time of 20.23 sec­onds in the fi­nal of the 200 me­tres event.

He ran out of the wide lane eight and apart from hav­ing to ex­ert more ef­fort in a com­pet­i­tive field, Richards, a win­ner of the bronze medal in the 200 m at the 2017 World Cham­pi­onships in Ath­let­ics and gold in the 400 me­tres at the 2022 World In­door Cham­pi­onships did not get the start he was hop­ing for.

He even­tu­al­ly fad­ed as the race pro­gressed, fin­ish­ing down the or­der in fifth. The race was even­tu­al­ly won by Let­sile Tebo­go of Botswana, cross­ing the line in 19.76 sec­onds, go­ing faster than his sea­son’s best time of 20.10 sec­onds.

Court­ney Lind­sey of the Unit­ed States took the sec­ond-place sil­ver medal in a new sea­son’s best time of 19.87, and Alexan­der Ogan­do of Do­mini­ca claimed the bronze medal in a time of 19.94, com­plet­ing the top three fin­ish.

Tak­ing fourth was Robert Gre­go­ry of the Unit­ed States, who al­so de­liv­ered a sea­son’s best time of 20.04 sec­onds for his fin­ish. Richards was part of the Trinidad and To­ba­go team that won the bronze medal in the men’s 4x400 me­tre re­lay team at the 2012 World In­door Cham­pi­onships, as well as a gold medal win­ner at the 2017 World Cham­pi­onships in Ath­let­ics.

Richards is the T&T in­door record hold­er for the 200 me­tres and 400 me­tres. He has won four in­di­vid­ual na­tion­al ti­tles. Yes­ter­day he fin­ished

<Kipye­gon and Che­bet set world records>

Kenyans Faith Kipye­gon and Beat­rice Che­bet set world records and Amer­i­can Melis­sa Jef­fer­son-Wood­en won a star-stud­ded women’s 100 me­ters event.

Kipye­gon fin­ished the 1,500 in 3 min­utes, 48.68 sec­onds, best­ing her own record of 3:49.04 in the event set last year.

Che­bet be­came the first women to run un­der 14 min­utes in the 5,000, fin­ish­ing in 13:58.06 to sur­pass Ethiopi­an Gudaf Tsegay’s 2023 mark of 14:00.21.

“When I was com­ing here to Eu­gene, I was com­ing to pre­pare to run a world record, and I said I have to try. I said, `If Faith is try­ing, why not me?’” Che­bet said about her good friend. “And to­day, I’m so hap­py be­cause I’ve achieved be­ing the first woman to run un­der 14. I’m so hap­py for my­self.”

The day’s most an­tic­i­pat­ed race was the 100, which fea­tured the top three fin­ish­ers from the Paris Olympics.

Jef­fer­son-Wood­en, who took the bronze medal last sum­mer, fin­ished in 10.75 sec­onds. Gold medal­ist Julien Al­fred of Saint Lu­cia was sec­ond in 10.77,and Marie Josée Ta Lou-Smith of Ivory Coast was third in 10.90.

Sha’Car­ri Richard­son, the sil­ver medal­ist in Paris, fin­ished last in the nine-run­ner field. It was just the sec­ond out­door 100 of the year for Richard­son, who said she strug­gled with an un­spec­i­fied in­jury in Feb­ru­ary.

“The on­ly mo­ti­va­tion that I had to­day was hav­ing a healthy race and the fact that I ex­e­cut­ed a healthy race know­ing that now I have the time, be­cause I do have that by be­ing the reign­ing world cham­pi­on, and all I have to do is just keep push­ing and fo­cus­ing in our prac­tice, so I’m su­per ex­cit­ed to just fin­ish,” said Richard­son, who has her at­ten­tion on Sep­tem­ber’s world cham­pi­onships in Tokyo.

Ja­maica’s Kis­hane Thomp­son won the men’s 100 in 9.86 sec­onds, ahead of British run­ner-up Zhar­nel Hugh­es. Thomp­son, who fin­ished sec­ond to Noah Lyles at last sum­mer’s Olympics, went in­to the Pre with the world’s best time this year at 9.75.

Syd­ney McLaugh­lin-Lev­rone, who set the world record in the 400 hur­dles in Paris, eas­i­ly won the flat 400 in 49.43.

Men’s 200M Rre­sults

1 Let­sile Tebo­go (Botswana) 17.76

2 Court­ney Lind­sey (USA) 19.87

3 Alexan­der Ogan­do (Do­mini­ca) 19.94

4 Robert Gre­go­ry (USA) 20.04

5 Jereem Richards (TT) 20.23

6 Bryan Lev­ell (Ja­maica) 20.25)

7 Aaron Brown (Cana­da) 20.44

8 Joseph Fahn­bulleh (USA) 20.53

9 Kyree King (USA) 20.67