Richards aiming to join Van Niekerk, Kerley and Norman in sub-10, sub-20, sub-44 club in 2025
Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards wants to become the fourth man in history to run inside 10 seconds in the 100m, 20 seconds in the 200m and 45 seconds in the 400m.
Three-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist told the Trinidad Express in an interview that he would love to join that exclusive club that has admitted only the trio of South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk and Americans Michael Norman and Fred Kerley.
Van Niekerk, who set the world 400m record of 43.03 to win the Olympic gold in the event at the Rio 2016 Olympics also holds a lifetime best of 9.94 in the 100m and 19.84 in the 200m.
Kerley, the 2022 World champion holds a lifetime best of 9.76 in the 100m which gave him victory at the Oregon World Athletics Championships, 19.76 in the 200m and 43.64 over the full lap race while Norman, the 2022 World 400m champion holds a lifetime best of 43.64 in the event, 9.86 in the 100m and 19.70 in the 200m.
‘The group that went sub-10, sub-20, sub-44 is the smallest elite group in sprints. I would love to be part of it,’ the 31-year-old said in a recent interview with the Trinidad Express
Richards has already achieved sub-44 seconds performance in the 400m (43.78) and sub-20 seconds in the 200m (19.80).
The Paris 2024 Olympics finalist has now set his sight on breaking 10 seconds in the blue ribband event.
‘I’m definitely thinking about going sub-10. I think I have the ability to, once training goes well and I’m a hundred percent healthy. I have to lay the foundation in training, day after day, week after week, month after month. If Coach allows me to run 100m races, I have the ability to do sub-10,’ he added.
