The crucial error which cost Sha’Carri Richardson in shock Olympics defeat

Sha’Carri Richardson missed out on an Olympic gold medal after paying the price for a slow start in the women’s 100m final.

Richardson, who won gold at last year’s world championships, had to settle for silver in Saturday’s Olympic final as Julien Alfred of St Lucia took gold with a stunning performance.

It was a disappointing outcome for the 24-year-old at her first ever Games – three years after she missed out in Tokyo after testing positive for THC.

And when assessing where she went wrong, Richardson will surely look no further than her sluggish reaction to the starting pistol.

It took the reigning world champion 0.221 seconds to get out of the blocks, which was the slowest time of all eight runners on the day.