American sprint aces Sha'Carri Richardson and Christian Coleman have impressed on debut at the Stawell Gift, winning their heats.
Starting off scratch over 120m, they lived up to their star billing on Saturday by progressing to Monday's semi-finals.
Richardson gave away 10m to the front-markers in the last of the women's heats, but was able to pull up at the finish and won in 13.815 seconds.
Earlier this week, Richardson said her first race of the year would be "glorified practice". Her emphatic performance on Saturday showed the sprint queen has brought solid form to country Victoria.
"My experience so far is just reminding me what track and field feels like. Love the respect and also fun - I'm having a lot of fun out here with everybody," Richardson told the Seven Network after her convincing win.
"It felt like being a kid again, playing tag - like playing rabbit. I had a great time, and it just kind of woke my body up with this being the first time running in 2026, it was like, OK, knocking the dust off.
"But chasing everyone actually made me activate and work on my race pattern, so it was a good first race."
Coleman had a tougher time of it in the last men's heat, beating John Howe on the line.
Howe was the front-marker in their heat off 8.75m and Coleman clocked 12.681 seconds to catch him.
Richardson is one of track and field's biggest stars - the fifth-fastest woman over 100m and the 2023 world champion, also winning gold at the Paris Olympics in the 4x100m relay and silver in the 100m.
Coleman won the 100m world title in 2019 and holds the 60m world record.
Running off 9m, Charlotte Nielsen posted the fastest women's time with her 13.32 heat win - although Richardson clearly would have gone faster if needed.
Olufemi Komolafe posted the fastest men's time of 12.110 off 5m.
The semi-finals and finals of the grass handicap event will be run on Easter Monday. Only two men and two women have won the Gift off scratch.
