By Chris Chavez
July 18, 2023
Julien Alfred, the NCAA 100m and 200m champion, beat U.S. champion Sha’Carri Richardson 10.89 to 10.97 at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial in Székesfehérvár, Hungary.
Here’s what you need to know:
– Alfred, who will represent Saint Lucia at next month’s world championships, was making her professional debut. She was six-for-six in 100m finals coming into Tuesday’s meet. Richardson was coming off a victory at the Silesia Diamond League on Sunday, where she beat world championship silver medalist Shericka Jackson. Richardson was five-for-five in 100m finals on the season and holds the second-fastest time of the year with a season’s best of 10.71 from the U.S. Championships.
– Since winning the NCAA title on June 10th, Alfred competed just once before Tuesday and won the Central American and Caribbean Games 100m title in 11.14 on July 3.
How the race played out:
– Alfred had a better reaction time and got out of the blocks quicker than Richardson. The U.S. champion mowed down Jackson in Silesia but just ran out of real estate to try and catch Alfred with her closing speed.
Our take:
On Sunday, I wrote about Richardson emerging as a 100m gold medal contender and not much has changed with my overall sentiments. I’m quick to chalk this one up to a tough showing after traveling from Poland to Hungary on Monday to race on Tuesday. She’ll have some time now to rest and show out in a rematch against Jackson on Sunday at the London Diamond League. Marie-Josee Ta Lou is also in the race and shouldn’t be slept on.
Hand up…I admittedly forgot about Alfred as a medal contender for the 100m (and you can make a case for her in the 200m) and now I won’t. Last summer, Alfred headed into the world championships as the fourth-fastest 100m woman of 2022. We didn’t get to see what she could do in the world championships final because she was disqualified in the 100m semifinals after a 0.095 reaction time – a tad under the allowable limit of 0.100. (It happened on the same day as Devon Allen’s DQ so that drew way more attention.) She got some redemption with a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games. At the world championships, Alfred is looking to deliver Saint Lucia’s first-ever medal of any color. – Chris Chavez
Julien Alfred walking away with a first place finish is nothing new for the Texas Longhorn. One thing Coach Flo knows how to do is keep his collegiate athletes ready for a post season. I believe Julien will be in the mix for taking home some World Champ hardware. I’m also still optimistic about Sha’Carri Richardson’s gold medal chances.
I’ve said before that Sha’Carri will really have to better execute her start – especially in the World Championship final. Every detail is going to matter. Granted she’s being ramping up the meets and travel is not easy on the body. One can assume this is a part of the training load before they decrease in preparation for what matters most – Worlds. Once the training load drops, I think we will see Sha’Carri’s start come back to life!. As we wait for “Mommy Rocket”, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, to debut her 100, we have a really strong women’s 100m taking shape for Budapest. – Jasmine Todd
We could say that Julien Alfred was a dark horse in this race but we all know that isn’t true and there isn’t a universe where I could even bring myself to believe that. With all the star collegians popping out in Europe with their shiny new contracts and uniforms, it was only a matter of time before the Bowerman favorite came out to play with the rest of the big dogs.
To beat two of America’s women headed to Budapest is not something that should be overlooked. While I’ve still got Sha’Carri and Shericka as my favorites to go 1-2 at Worlds, I strongly bet on Julien making that final and placing within the Top 5. We’re talking about the woman who was so close to breaking the 60m world record at indoor NCAAs this year and has shattered every St. Lucian record. She’s just that good!
In this race Julien did what she does best – lead from the gun and use her strength to assert her dominance over her competitors. Sha’Carri displayed her killer top end speed to give everything she had to try and close on Julien, but today was the day that strength won. Julien should celebrate the fact she’s been able to be as consistent as she is from the beginning of the season through now. As she told me at outdoor NCAA’s, the job ain’t done. She’s got gold on her mind for Budapest. – Katelyn Hutchison
If I am going to praise Sha’Carri for her racing schedule then I’d be remiss not to mention that with Julien’s full NCAA Bowerman-winning-worthy season she is already at an INSANE 42 races. That’s worth a race every four days.
Now if you are at all confused about why Sha’Carri raced eight times in 13 days while battling a nine-hour time difference, then you are either an experienced sprinter or the writer of this newsletter. Since I was curious, I asked a couple of global medalists who know how to do block starts to explain why.
Essentially, there is enough time between USAs and Worlds to get in two heavy/longer workload cycles of about three weeks each. That can be achieved at home in workouts or through racing a bunch. The legs are heavy because they are supposed to be – the athlete knows this lining up and ideally, if things don’t feel fantastic, it doesn’t rock their confidence. Once it’s time to deload and allow the nervous system to reset a bit, then the legs will be exploding out of the blocks.
It seems like a good time to mention Sha’Carri, Shericka, and also Marie-Joseé Ta Lou will go at it again in London on Sunday. – Kyle Merber
Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
