Benjamin Richardson (born 19 December 2003) is a South African track and field athlete who competes as a sprinter. He was born in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga.[2]
 Richardson in 2024 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | South African |
| Born | 19 December 2003 Pretoria, South Africa |
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.90 m)[1] |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Athletics |
| Event | Sprint |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best(s) | 100m: 9.86 (La Chaux-de-Fonds, 2024) 200m 19.99 (La Chaux-de-Fonds, 2024) |
Medal record | |
Early life
Richardson attended Nelspruit Primary School, TuksSport High School, and studied at the University of Pretoria in Pretoria.[3][4][5]
Career
In 2021, he won the silver medal in the 100 metres at the 2021 World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya.[6] At the same competition he won gold as part of the South African 4 × 100 m relay team. With Mihlali Xhotyeni, Sinesipho Dambile, Letlhogonolo Moleyane, the relay team broke the world U20 record, running 38.51 seconds.[7]
In April 2022, he lowered his personal best over 100 metres to 10.08, Gaborone.[5] In August 2022, he won the bronze medal in the 100 metres at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.[8]
In August 2023, he was the youngest member of the South African team selected for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.[9]
He ran as part of the South African 4x100m relay team which qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics at the 2024 World Relays Championships in Nassau, Bahamas.[10] In June 2024, he won bronze in the 100 metres at the African Championships in Cameroon.[11]
He set a new 100m personal best of 9.86 seconds and a new 200m personal best of 19.99 seconds in La Chaux-de-Fonds in July 2024.[12] He was selected for the South African team for the 2024 Paris Olympics.[13]
Unfortunately, in the Paris 2024 200m heats, Richardson pulled his hamstring[14] and had to walk the race of the race, finishing over 30 seconds slower than his heatmates,[15] then withdraw from the repechage round[14] and the rest of the 2024 Olympics.[16]
References
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
