History was made on the tracks at the Paris 2024 Olympics as Julien Alfred clinched Saint Lucia’s first-ever medal at the Games.
The 23-year-old stunned the rest of the chasing pack to win the women’s 100-metre final, setting a new national record by clocking a time of 10.72 seconds on the wet tracks in Paris.
Alfred, who won gold in the 60m event at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships, is now tied for eighth on the all-time 100m list.
The Saint Lucian sprinter beat race favourite and reigning world champion Sha’Carri Richardson of the United States, who settled for second and won the silver medal in 10.87s.
Meanwhile, Richardson’s compatriot Melissa Jefferson settled for bronze in 10.92s, while Great Britain’s Daryll Neita, who produced the best finish by a British female athlete in an Olympic sprint final for 64 years, missed out on the podium by four hundredths of a second after finishing fourth in 10.96s.
American sprinter Twanisha Terry finished fifth in 10.97s; Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji (10.99s) came sixth; Tia Clayton of Jamaica ended seventh in 11.04s, while Africa’s only representative in the final, Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith, crossed the line in eighth place in a time of 13.84s
