“The Tortoise and the Hare” is one of Aesop’s Fables and is one told umpteenth time in schools.

The account details a race between unequal partners and has attracted conflicting interpretations.

The fable itself is a variant of a common folktale theme in which ingenuity and trickery are employed to overcome a stronger opponent.

However, when America’s newly minted sprint queen Sha’Carri Richardson takes on Jamaica’s Olympic stars Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson, et al. in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon today, it may be one for the annal of athletic history, separating the hare from the tortoise but certainly not a fable.

Sha’Carri Richardson, who missed the Tokyo Olympics after a positive marijuana test, will be on home soil, and some may even view her as the favorite to win, despite the presence of the record-breaking Tokyo triple gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah.

Ahead of the meet, Richardson debuted a new platinum blonde and blue hairstyle, along with a message for her competitors.

“August 21 and I’m not playing nice,” Richardson captioned a post on her Instagram.

In a recent press interview, Richardson opined on what it was like sitting on the sideline while her peers battled it out on the track in the Tokyo Olympics. 

“A moment of bitterness, but at the same time it was sweet because it just gives me more, it just gives me more time, it gives me more to show the world that I’m here to stay and it just guarantees that I’m going to be here just a little bit longer in the game but definitely watching it made me want to push forward and just grow from that,” Richardson said.

Now, Richardson will get a chance to prove her mettle as she will be up against some of the best in the women’s 100 meters at the longest-running outdoor invitational track & field meet in America — The Prefontaine Classic.

The schedule for today’s meet is set out below:                         

12:17 PM   Welcome & National Anthem                  

12:20 PM   Preview Program                 

12:32 PM   Men Triple Jump (R1-R5) West Outer Runway

12:43 PM   Women Pole Vault East Outer Runway

12:57 PM   Women High Jump East Apron

1:03 PM     Men  800m         

1:12 PM     Women 3000m Steeplechase         

1:24 PM     Men Triple Jump (Final 3) West Outer Runway

1:33 PM     Men  200m         

1:41 PM     Women 100m             

1:48 PM     Women 800m             

1:54 PM     Men Shot Put (R1-R5) West Ring 

1:56 PM     Men 2-Mile         

2:12 PM     Women 1500m            

2:24 PM     Women 400m Hurdles          

2:29 PM     Men Shot Put (Final 3) West Ring 

2:37 PM     Men 100m          

2:45 PM     Women 200m             

2:52 PM     Men Bowerman Mile

Readers Bureau, Contributor

Edited by Jesus Chan

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