WACO, Texas (CMC) — Renny Quow almost upset former men’s Olympic and World champion Jeremy Wariner, but women’s World champion Sanya Richards-Ross stamped her authority in the 400 metres on Saturday at Michael Johnson Invitational meet.

Quow, the top Trinidad & Tobago quarter-miler, and swirling winds which gusted as high as six metres a second provided a stern challenge for Wariner in the homestretch.

Coming into the final 100 metres, Quow pulled up on the outside of Wariner, but the American showed he had enough left in his legs to pull away from his Caribbean rival to clock 45.61 seconds — a mere eight hundredths-of-a-second faster than Quow.

The Jamaica-born Richards-Ross ran a strong curve, after finding herself trailing collegiate star Jessica Beard at the halfway stage of the race.

Richards-Ross accelerated in the last 100 metres finished with a time of 52 secs flat to get her season off to a winning start.

“The first race is always the hardest,” said Richards-Ross, who missed almost all of 2010 because of injuries.

“This feels like it was my first race in two years. The best thing about it was my strength in the finishing straight. If there was no wind, I think this would have been a 50-point time.”

“I’ve been working a lot on my endurance. I haven’t done a lot of speed work yet, so the fact that my endurance is there makes me very happy.”

Jamaica’s Natoya Goule also made her mark on the day’s programme when she landed a notable victory in the women’s 800 metres.

The 20-year-old freshman at South Plains College in Lubbock, Texas, took the lead immediately, ran splits of 28 and 58 seconds, and went on to win by 40 metres in 2:02.11, lowering her personal best from 2:02.52.