10 lonely seconds to justify one’s existence

Stuart Weir wrote this piece on the Women’s 100 meters, which was a stupendously dramatic race! 

10 lonely seconds to justify one’s existence.

In the film, Chariots of Fire,  which featured 2 athletes at the 1924 Paris, scriptwriter Colin Welland, had Harold Abrahams say in anticipation of the Olympic 100 meter final: “And now in one hour’s time, I will be out there again. I will raise my eyes and look down that corridor; 4 feet wide, with 10 lonely seconds to justify my existence”.

On Monday evening in Budapest Sha’Carri Richardson took 10.65 seconds to justify her existence and become the world champion. The full result was

But the drama started an hour and a quarter earlier than that, with three semi-finals. The first two in each race would qualify for the final, plus the two fastest athletes who did not come in the first two. (I’m so glad that we no longer call them the fastest losers!)  Sha’Carri Richardson in 10.84 for 3rd place in her race was a clear qualifier, but Ewa Swoboda and Dina Asher-Smith each clocked 11.01. After a nervous wait, Dina Asher-Smith got the nod by one-thousandth of a second. Then common sense prevailed. Someone noticed that there were nine lanes, not eight, and Swoboda was added to the final lineup.

Lanes are awarded on the basis of performance in the semi-finals, meaning that lanes four to seven (the middle lanes) contained Jackson, Ta Lou, Fraser-Pryce, and Alfred. As a time qualifier, Richardson was in lane 9, the outside lane – regarded as a disadvantage. Equally, I know of athletes who say that they prefer the outside lane because you just run your own race with no distractions. The four middle lanes battled it out, with the two Jamaicans, Jackson, and Fraser-Price, finishing in 10.72 and 10.77. I suspect that I…