Kyla Richardson said she is honored to take the place of Kristina Knott in the women’s sprint events of the athletics competition of the 31st Southeast Asian Games.
The 24-year-old Richardson goes to Vietnam full of confidence, after she won the three gold medals in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4×100 relay of the 2022 PacWest Track & Field Championships over the weekend at the Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California.
Knott won’t make it to the SEA Games because of a foot injury.
Richardson is tipped to grab the golds in both the 100-meter and 200-meters, with top Vietnamese sprinter Le Tu Chinh out of contention due to a similar injury on her foot.
Richardson will be joining up with sister Kayla Richardson, Robyn Brown and Eloisa Luzon in the women’s 4×100 relays.
The four of them claimed the silver medal back in 2019 behind Thailand.
Richardson, who is on her final year of college at Fresno Pacific, set three meet records on Saturday to help the Sunbirds record a total of 77 points in the sprints, according results on the tournament’s official website.
“It’s definitely exciting. I’m happy about how I performed. I just want to stay focused,” said Richardson on Zoom.
In the 100-meter finals, Richardson was ahead of three runners who finished ahead of the record, which Mechaela Hyacinth set last year at 11.34 seconds. She reached the finish line in 11.31 seconds.
Richardson also established a new best time in the 200-meters, finishing in 23.12 seconds, giving her the second of the three meet records she set.
She surpassed the nine-year-old mark established during the first ever PacWest Championships, set by Shavine Hodges in 2013 at 23.51.
Her record in the 100-meter is close to the SEA Games’ mark that Knott made at 11.27 seconds back in 2019. Richardson is also near the 23.01-second national mark of Knott in the same SEA Games.
Richardson was also part of the Fresno Pacific 4x100meter relay team that shattered the Grand Canyon meet mark of of 44.92 seconds in 2012 in a photo finish with Azusa Pacific.
Azusa Pacific was behind Fresno by one-hundredth of a second with a time of 44.93 seconds.