Fans watched Sha’Carri Richardson sharpen her sprint on April 14, offering a timely signal ahead of the 2026 Tom Jones Memorial Invitational. The 26-year-old has been looking to rebound from a difficult 2025 season, where she had no individual wins, managed just one podium finish, and placed fifth in the 100m at the World Championships amid off-track distractions. Now, Richardson is answering those doubts on the track.

This time, alongside Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Kayla White, and Anavia Battle, the quartet scorched the field at the 2026 Tom Jones Memorial Invitational in the 4x100m relays. As per track and field expert Travis Miller, the four women ran the fastest 4x100m, albeit with a caveat. “41.70 for the fastest 4x100m in WORLD HISTORY run this early in the season! ,” Miller wrote on X.

Based on statistics posted by the World Athletics, it seems that Miller may be correct. The website only posts records from official events and thus won’t include any unofficial records. Yet, ever since Team USA set the 4x100m record at the London Olympics, few teams have come as close to their 40.82 mark.

More importantly, as Miller said, Sha’Carri Richardson and co’s time of 41.70 is the fastest time set this early in the season. For context, the outdoor track season kicks off around April and May, sometimes in late March. Before their race at the 2026 Tom Jones Memorial Invitational, the record was 41.74.

That was set on March 29 2025, by Team USA Red at the Texas Relays, and Anavia Battle was a part of that team. Battle anchored the race with Tamari Davis opening, followed by Gabby Thomas and Jenna Pradini. Their rather impressive time makes it the ninth-fastest time on the list until Sha’Carri Richardson and company stepped up, and will likely push them down to tenth.

This comes as little surprise, though, given that the team of Richardson and Jefferson-Wooden at either end of the field has done incredibly well. That was evident at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where Richardson stared down her competitors after taking Team USA from third to first, winning gold. She anchored the race, and Jefferson‑Wooden led off with superb times.

Sha’Carri Richardson ran a 10.09 split while Jefferson‑Wooden clocked 11.46. Neither recorded the fastest split. That honor went to Germany’s Gina Lückenkemper, who ran 9.89, followed by Team USA’s Twanisha Terry with 9.98.

Richardson then repeated that kind of performance in another standout win in 2025 at the World Championships. She teamed up there with White and Jefferson‑Wooden, and the trio thrived once again. 41.70 for the fastest 4x100m in WORLD HISTORY run this early in the season! Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Anavia Battle, Kayla White, Sha’Carri Richardson pic.twitter.com/bPXRHixTZT — Travis Miller (@travismillerx13) April 18, 2026 In Tokyo, they clocked in at 41.75, although Sha’Carri Richardson was forced to put her best foot forward as she was 0.01 seconds behind Jamaica when she started the final leg.

That echoed her 2023 World Championships performance, where Richardson anchored Team USA as they won another 4x100m relay gold with a time of 41.03, a championship record and the fourth-best time ever run. Now, in 2026, the quartet was uncatchable as the Pure Athletics team of Sabrina Dockery, Brianna Lyston, Gina Luckenkemper, and Rebecca Hasse finished well behind, registering 42.42 seconds in second place. It is, however, Richardson’s first major race this year, as she only opened her season at the Stanwell Gift, where she won.

It’s also probably why the 26-year-old opted out of the 200m at the 2026 Tom Jones Memorial Invitational despite qualifying for the event, leaving the field wide open. Sha’Carri Richardson opts out of 200m as MacKenzie Long wins the event Called the women’s 200m “Olympic development”, and in the absence of Richardson, the heats saw more than a few surprising results. Olympic medalist Dina Asher-Smith and Amy Hunt both participated, yet McKenzie Long outdid them.

An Olympian herself, the 25-year-old finished with the fastest time (22.42) across the six heats, beating out both Asher-Smith and Hunt. Not only that, Kayla White and Favour Ofili finished well above the two British athletes, although the real shock was Mariah Maxwell. The high school standout finished a shocking second in Heat 1 (and thus overall), clocking in just two seconds behind Long.

A surprising result, and even that was just behind her usual time, having recently registered a wind-assisted 22.25 (+3.8) at the 2026 Texas Relays. It marks a stark improvement over her 2025 performance, when she ran 23.21 and 23.36 at the USA U20 Championships. Similarly, Long has steadily improved in the 200m since 2017, when she ran 24.15, and she set a personal best of 21.83 seconds in 2024 at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships.

She also registered a 22.31 at the Tom Jones Memorial in 2023, which does make her 2026 time slightly below her best at the event. Meanwhile, two-time 400m Olympic champion S