Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred surprises by winning 100m gold

Paris. A surprise in the women’s sprint event in athletics: Saint Lucian Julien Alfred defeated American favourite Sha’Carri Richardson to become Olympic champion in the 100 metres on Saturday in Paris.

Alfred impressed with a time of 10.72, a new record for her country, which had never before won an Olympic medal. Richardson had to settle for silver (10.87) and fellow American Melissa Jefferson (10.92) was bronze.

Prior to this gold, Alfred’s greatest successes were the titles at this year’s World Indoor Championships and at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games.

In the semi-final, held shortly before the final, Alfred had already warned Richardson, dominating her in that race, in which both qualified without complications.

In the final, a slow start by the Texan hampered her and she was unable to make up for the ground she had lost to Alfred, who stole the show in the rain at the Stade de France.

The United States will have to continue to wait to regain its Olympic gold medal in the sprint, which has eluded it since Gail Devers triumphed on home soil in Atlanta in 1996.

For Richardson, this silver is her first Olympic medal in her debut in the event, three years after she missed the Tokyo event due to testing positive for cannabis.

He will not compete in the 200 metres, for which he did not qualify, and his only hope of winning Olympic gold now depends on his country’s 4×100-metre relay team.

Alfred succeeds Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah as Olympic queen of the straight line, winner of this event in 2016 and 2021 but a notable absentee in this edition due to an untimely injury during preparation.

Jamaican Shericka Jackson announced on Wednesday that she was giving up the 100 metres to focus on the 200 metres, while veteran and legendary Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who at 37 is competing in her fifth and final Olympic Games, withdrew before the semi-final.

The only Jamaican to run in the final, Tia Clayton, had to settle for seventh and penultimate place (11.04).

Saint Lucia, a small Caribbean island located just south of Martinique, France, thus bursts onto the map of world athletics and achieves the greatest sporting success in its history.

And at 23, Julien Alfred certainly hasn’t had his last word.