2026 USATF Outdoor Championships Day 2: Are You Not Entertained?!
Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson win U.S. 100-meter titles to cap off Day 2 of the 2026 USATF Outdoor Championships.
By David Melly
The theme of USAs last night was quality over quantity.
Sure, there were only two finals on the track, but they were truly thrilling. When the biggest sprint stars in the sport, Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, show up on a national start line, we’re pretty much guaranteed to get something special, and that’s exactly what happened.
The evening’s weather had great sprinting conditions from start to finish, but for most of the semifinals, that included a hefty tailwind that kept pushing races over the legal limit of 2.0 meters per second. But conditions behaved for the 100-meter finals, and as a result, there were no asterisks around the blazing-fast winning times.
First, Richardson used the strong form she’s been showing off since mid-June to easily dispatch a strong field, equalling her season’s best of 10.77 with a huge 0.13 second margin of victory over runner-up Kayla White. A few minutes later, Lyles also brought his best stuff, equalling his lifetime best 9.79 from that epic final at the Paris Olympics to beat Ronnie Baker, Kenny Bednarek, Christian Coleman, and more.
The more-full-than-yesterday stands got quite the show, with both Richardson and Lyles using the stage to trot back down the homestretch and hype up the crowd, mirroring the high-energy giddiness of the fans that always seems to follow a stellar track performance. Let’s hope the good vibes continue into Saturday and Sunday as the schedule gets increasingly finals-focused.
In the prelims, the 400ms went mostly according to form. Aaliyah Butler showed why she’s the favorite in the women’s race, leading all qualifiers in 50.53. The big bummer of the men’s heats was that 2024 Olympic champ Quincy Hall still seems not to be back to top form, as the 27-year-old who’s battled injuries the last two seasons only ran 46.47 and didn’t advance.
It was a similarly mixed bag in the men’s 800m prelims, as World Indoor champ Cooper Lutkenhaus easily made the final but 2025 U.S. champ Donavan Brazier did not. Lutkenhaus won’t be the only high schooler competing, as Paige Sheppard snuck into the women’s final as the last qualifier in 2:00.99 as well. Up front, now-former high school phenom Roisin Willis displayed the kind of form that suggests she may be well-positioned to repeat, kicking her way to the only sub-2 on the day at 1:59.83.
On the infield, Tyus Wilson equalled his lifetime-best leap of 2.29m to claim the high jump title and Euphenie Andre improved her PB by a whopping 21 centimeters to win the women’s triple jump in 13.93m. The multi athletes wrapped up two days of work as well, with Erin Marsh claiming her first U.S. heptathlon title thanks to a 6,059 point haul and Garrett Scantling notching his third in the decathlon, scoring 8,526. Both competitions were decided in the final event, with Marsh and Scantling doing what they needed to do in the 800m and 1500m, respectively, to seal the deal.
Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber, Mac Fleet, and Anderson Emerole unpacked all the action in the second daily CITIUS MAG Podcast, and our YouTube channel continues to be full of mixed-zone interviews with all the top athletes. Make sure to follow along on Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky as we continue to bring you live action as the weekend of running, jumping, and throwing continues.
Event of the Day: Men’s 100m
First off, we all owe Ronnie Baker a bit of an apology. Heading into the weekend, the men’s 100m was billed as a three-man battle between Lyles, Bednarek, and Coleman, but Baker, known primarily as a 60-meter specialist, managed to run his fastest 100m in five years at just the right time, clocking a 9.88 to just beat out Bednarek for silver by 5/1000ths of a second.
Lyles hasn’t had a particularly flashy season to date by his own high standards, but he’s been putting out solid run after solid run, and so his eighth national title should come as no surprise. What was a bit surprising, however, was how fast he ran: Lyles had only dipped under 9.80 once before in his career, and he did it twice in a little over an hour, running a wind-aided 9.76 in the semis (the fastest all-conditions time of his career) and then following it up with a wind-legal 9.79 in the final.
When Lyles is in contention with great starters like Baker and Coleman by 40 meters, the race is pretty much over as none of them can match his top speed. And that’s exactly what happened, showing the 2024 Olympic champ hasn’t lost any sauce off his fastball in championship settings, even in an “off” year.
Athlete of the Day: Sha’Carri Richardson
Because sprinters like World champ Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Olympic champ Julien Alfred have been running so well all season, it almost felt like Sha’Carri Richardson was flying a bit under the radar this year — which is crazy, because she’d run under 10.80 twice already before last night.
Sometimes it feels like the narrative around Richardson is that she doesn’t race often or that she can be streaky, but in her last four U.S. Championships she’s finished first in the 100m three times (she didn’t race the final last year as she had a bye into Worlds). That kind of consistency is hard to come by in the short sprints, and now that we’re closing in on seven or eight years of the Sha’Carri Richardson pro career, it’s worth applauding that she’s pretty unambiguously been one of the best 100-meter runners of the last decade. Her resume isn’t flawless, but it’s grown to be quite lengthy, and that’s saying something.
What to Watch on Day 3
Saturday will be a great day for middle-distance fans, as the finals of the 1500m and steeplechase are both set for this afternoon. If you prefer the hurdles, fear not: the women’s 100H and 400H and men’s 400H all kick off their racing.
A national champion will be crowned in the men’s and women’s 400m, and World champ Melissa Jefferson-Wooden opens up her USAs campaign in the first round of the 200m. Noah Lyles is set to double back to the event where he’s the two-time defending champ, and he’ll be heavily favored to threepeat.
Plenty of field finals are on offer, with finals of the men’s javelin, discus, and triple jump and the women’s pole vault. But the most exciting throwing event of all may be the shot put, where Chase Jackson has been performing incredibly well all season and could put up a huge mark in pursuit of her fifth outdoor title. This one’s more of an afternoon event, with the track events getting underway at 2pm, so kick back and enjoy the ride.
Keep up with all things track and field by following us across Instagram, X, Threads, and YouTube. Catch the latest episodes of the CITIUS MAG Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. For more, subscribe to The Lap Count and CITIUS MAG Newsletter for the top running news delivered straight to your inbox.