Matt Richardson doubles up with sprint gold at Birmingham Commonwealth Games

Published On: 1 August 2022

WAIS graduate Matt Richardson has produced one of the performances of his career winning gold in the sprint to complete a historic double.

Richardson, who claimed the first Western Australian gold of the Games in the team sprint on day one defeated the fastest qualifier Nicholas Paul (Trinidad and Tobago) in the gold medal race.

The 23-year-old’s result comes 20 years after fellow Western Australian sprinter Ryan Bayley did the sprint and team sprint double at the 2022 Manchester Commonwealth Games.

Earlier in the day he qualified second fastest in 9.598secs, just over a tenth slower than the man he would beat in the final.

He would dispatch Ryan Owens (England) and Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom (Malaysia) in his first two sprint matches. His first major test came in the semifinal against Jack Carlin of Scotland) where he narrowly lost the first of three races in a photo finish, before bouncing back and executing two tactical races to reach the final.

In the first of the gold medal races, he unleashed his tactical nous to go one up, before producing a blistering turn of speed in the second to cruise to the gold.

“Sprint day is always a really long day and the emotions just build and build, and then when you finally come across the line and no one else is before you it just explodes,” he said of the emotions after crossing the line.

Richardson was the only person in the field to have beaten the 200m world record holder this season and the battles have all been close, with the experience helping Richardson to the win.

“Me and Nicholas have raced each other a few times this season, it has always been a super close battle and today was no exception and just always good racing guys like that.

“I was born only an hour away from here so I’ve got about 20-30 people in the stands, all my family so its almost half a home crowd to me.”

Western Australia had further success on the track with Luke Zaccaria piloting Beau Wootton to bronze in the men’s tandem B sprint.