Olympic 100m silver medallist Richardson beaten in Tokyo season opener
American Twanisha Terry, fifth in last year's Olympics, was second in 11.42 followed by Canada's Sade McCreath in 11.46.
World champion Richardson will attempt to defend her title in the Japanese capital in September.
"It's a season-opener for those athletes and they will be very, very strong come the world championships," said Rizzo.
"I really look up to those athletes so to come out on top was pretty exciting for an Australian athlete."
Christian Coleman, Richardson's boyfriend and training partner, finished third in the men's 100m in a time of 10.11sec.
Japan's Hiroki Yanagita won the race in 10.06, followed by American Christian Miller in 10.08.
"Each race, every opportunity I have is more of a mental, internal battle for me to get better," said Coleman, the 2019 100m world champion.
"I felt some good things today and I want to just keep getting better at it."
Ukraine's world and Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh won the women's high jump with a leap of 1.96m, far below her world record of 2.10m.
She also won at both Diamond League meetings in China at Xiamen and Shanghai/Keqiao in the past month.
"I'm satisfied with this competition," said Mahuchikh.
"Of course the result is not good but I'm happy with that because my body is not ready to jump high today."
Japan's world and Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi won the women's javelin with a throw of 64.16m.
American Robert Gregory won the men's 200m in 20.24sec ahead of Canada's Andre De Grasse, who won gold at the same stadium at the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Social media hit Ilona Maher takes women's rugby onto new plane
Now the stage is set at the women's World Cup in England for the American to spark even more interest. The 29-year-old phenomenon has attracted over eight million followers on social media, not only through her sporting exploits but also for her promotion of body positivity. She played a pivotal role in the USA women's team winning a first ever Olympic medal, beating Australia in the third-place playoff in Paris last year. On the back of that achievement, Maher featured in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition and appeared in the US version of hit TV show "Dancing with the Stars", finishing runner-up. The Maher-fuelled improvement of the USA team attracted the attention of American investor Michele Kang who donated $4 million to help develop the USA Women's Rugby Sevens Team over four years. In another sport, Kang owns the Lyon women's football team, the eight-time European champions. Maher's days in Paris were not just spent playing rugby but also attracting even more followers with her pithy social media posts. She compared life in the Athletes' Village to a reality TV show, in one humorous posting saying she was there "looking for love", to which her friend replies: "No you are here to play rugby." In more reflective mode in Paris, she told the Bleacher Report one of her goals was trying to reassure "girls" that playing sport did not take away their "girliness". "What we're trying to show is the beauty that in sports you can be a badass on the field, you can be a beast on the field, but also be a beauty," she said. "It's really important for me because I want girls to see what their body is capable of. "It's not just to be looked at, objectified, but it's strong and it's fast, and it's brilliant." Maher, who through her body positivity push has become a brand ambassador for a deodorant and a skincare product she co-founded, revels in her global popularity and being "America's sweetheart." "I love when people call me that because I feel like I'm maybe not the image you would have of a sweetheart in some sense of the word,' Maher told CNN in January this year. "I'm honoured." 'Tone down' Maher, who hails from Vermont, may be extrovert and cheerful but she keeps her ego in check by showing appreciation to those women sports stars who paved the way for her. Hamm, her fellow American and a groundbreaking football superstar of the 1990s and early noughties, a two-time Olympic and World Cup winner, features high on the list. "I remember in our gym we always had a poster of Mia Hamm, and that was always cool to look up to her," Maher told the Bleacher Report. Closer to home, though, she is part of a tight-knit family unit, with her father Michael, a keen rugby player who introduced her to the sport, Netherlands-born mum Mieneke and sisters Olivia and Adrianna. Elder sister Olivia has a considerable social media presence herself. From her father Ilona not only learned about rugby but also a crucial life lesson when he defended her at a softball event. One of the other dads complained that Maher's pitches were unhittable but he was put in his place by Maher senior. "I think that was the first moment of being told to never tone it down," she told CNN. "Because that dad over there … wanted me to tone myself down so that it could be easier for (his daughter). "But that's not the world, is it? The world isn't going to tone down for you." Instead Maher has upped the ante and the fruits for women's rugby have been plentiful as New Zealand legend Portia Woodman-Wickliffe told AFP. "Having someone from America with that American market who is very confident, loves rugby, loves supporting women's bodies, someone as vocal as that is amazing for us," Woodman-Wickliffe said.
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Akie Iwai joins twin sister Chisato as LPGA winner with Portland Classic triumph
Iwai started the day at Edgewater Country Club with a two-stroke lead and never faltered to finish with a 24-under par total of 264. Chisato Iwai was among the golfers trying to apply pressure, charging up the leaderboard with an eight-under par 64, but it was American Gurleen Kaur who finished second after an impressive, bogey-free seven-under par 65 for 268. Former US collegiate standout Kaur, opened with three straight birdies and had four more coming in for her career-best LPGA round. Akie Iwai became the 10th first-time LPGA winner this season and the fifth Japanese player to triumph. She said she'd felt pressure to join the flood of Japanese winners, but even more she was inspired by her sister's triumph at the Riviera Maya Open in Mexico in May. "(She) really inspired me," said world number 29 Iwai, who was runner-up this year at Thailand and the LA Championship. "That's why I did my best this year." Iwai got off to a steady start, with back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth and two more at 11 and 14. She got up and down for par from off the green at 16, then capped her day with another birdie brace, curling in a testing birdie putt at 17 before draining an 18-footer at 18. "Today I was able to conquer myself," she said. Her sister, who had been watching the final holes nervously, was the first to rush the green and start the champagne-spray celebrations. "Just watching, so nervous," Chisato said as Iwai was coming down the final stretch. "I'm cheering for her." But first she had been chasing, and hard. Chisato started the day seven adrift but after an early bogey exploded with eagles at the fifth and seventh -- with a birdie at the sixth sandwiched between. She strung together four straight birdies from the ninth through the 12th and rebounded from a bogey at 15 with one last birdie at 17. She finished tied for third on 19-under 269 with Sweden's Linn Grant, who rolled in the seventh birdie of her five-under 67 at 18. Australia's Grace Kim, who captured her first major title at the Evian Championship last month, started the day two shots off the lead and carded a two-under 70 that left her in sole possession of fifth place on 270.
France 24
3 days ago
- France 24
Thompson eclipses Lyles and Hodgkinson makes stellar comeback
A host of world and Olympic champions headlined by the likes of Karsten Warholm -- with an incredible performance in the 400m hurdles -- Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis, Faith Kipyegon and Femke Bol shone in hot and humid conditions in front of more than 40,000 fans in the Polish city of Chorzow. In their first meeting since Lyles won Olympic gold by just five-thousandths of a second in Paris last year, Thompson made an electric start and led from gun to tape for victory in 9.87sec. "My job is to get the job done," said Thompson. "I enjoyed competition against Noah today... nobody is perfect, but I am working on improving my strengths and improving on my weaknesses. "Paris last year was a big learning factor. I learned it is me against myself." Lyles had to be content with second in 9.90sec as the athletes fine-tune preparations for the September 13-21 world championships in Tokyo. "It makes me really excited for not only today, but also for next week and Tokyo," the American said. "The more I run, the better I am getting. I get more excited each day and it is working. I need to keep competing." There was a timely return for Hodgkinson as the 23-year-old Briton showed no sign of the lingering hamstring problems that had sidelined her for months as she clocked 1min 54.74sec, the fastest in the world this year. "I was just happy to step on the track after more than a year," Hodgkinson said. "I planned to run a fast time because I don't have five races anymore before Tokyo, I only have today and the meeting in Lausanne next week. So it had to be fast and I'm happy that it worked." Kenya's serial world record breaker Kipyegon missed out on the long-standing world record in the women's 3,000m. Six weeks after improving her own world 1,500m record in Eugene, Kipyegon clocked 8:07.04 over the non-Olympic distance, falling just short of the 8:06.11 world record set by China's Wang Junxia in 1993. "I am so happy. I wanted to run a longer distance," Kipyegon said. "It is all about Tokyo now, but Tokyo is a championship race, so anything can happen!" Blistering Warholm Warholm looked in astonishing form in the 400m hurdles after a two-month training block at home in Norway, timing a world-leading time of 46.28sec. It was the third fastest time ever run over the distance, topped only by the Norwegian's own world record of 46.28sec and American Rai Benjamin's 46.19sec. "That race was great! I had great rhythm and speed throughout," said Warholm. Dutch star Femke Bol comfortably extended her six-race win streak in the women's 400m hurdles this year with victory in 51.91sec -- another world-leading time. Duplantis, fresh from setting his 13th pole vault world record with 6.29m in Budapest on Tuesday, failed to hit those heights but secured victory in 6.10m, having failed three attempts at 6.20. World leader Melissa Jefferson-Wooden equalled Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's meet record when she clocked 10.66sec for an impressive victory in the women's 100m. World champion Sha'Carri Richardson could only finish sixth after a troubled few weeks following her arrest for a violent altercation with her partner. Jamaica's two-time world champion Shericka Jackson claimed the honours in the 200m in 22.17sec as she powers back to form. Cordell Tinch left it late, but the in-form American powered past three-time world champion Grant Holloway for a third victory this season in the 110m hurdles in 13.03sec. Olympic champion Masai Russell came out on top of a stacked field in the 100m hurdles in a Diamond League record of 12.19sec ahead of American teammate Tonea Marshall. "This win is very important to me becaue these are the women I'm going to be racing against at the world champs," said Russell. Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic edged Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser for victory in 49.18sec in the women's 400m and Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay outpaced Kenya's Beatrice Chebet for the win in the women's 1500m in 3:50.62. © 2025 AFP
