World Indoors 60m champion Julien Alfred and coach Edrick Floreal have sprung a surprise to open the 2025 season.
As reported by St Lucia Times in December, the 23-year-old from Ciceron will headline the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix this weekend in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, marking her season debut, and her first outing since capturing the Wanda Diamond League 100m crown last September in Brussels.
But the second-fastest woman of all time over 60m won’t be running in the event that got her a first global title in Glasgow last March. Instead, it was announced on Monday that the 2024 Olympic 100m champion and 200m silver medallist will contest the women’s 300m on Sunday.
Alfred has only ever run the 300m once, clocking 37.36 in June 2022. That performance was the 22nd fastest for the year, and 147th all time. But in the off-season, coach Flo publicly committed her to doing longer events this year to help build her speed endurance.
The Saint Lucian champion, one of the biggest names confirmed for the TRACK at New Balance, will face off against British training partner, Dina Asher-Smith, and Lynna Irby-Jackson of the USA.
Asher-Smith, 29, won a 200m world title in 2019. But she’s even further removed from the 300, last having run that distance at the age of 15. Irby-Jackson, third at this event in last year’s meet, could provide a stiff test. The 10th fastest woman ever over 300m, she is largely a specialist in the long sprints Indoors.
The TRACK at New Balance, opened in 2022, is designed to be the fastest track in the world, with a 200-metre hydraulically banked indoor track as its centrepiece. Last year’s 300m was won by the woman who would go on to take the Olympic 200m gold—Gabby Thomas of the USA. That race produced three of the top 20 fastest runs in the history of the event.
The 2025 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix will be shown live on NBC from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, February 2, and will be the second stop on the World Athletics Indoor Tour. The series of the best indoor athletics events around the world awards overall tour winners US$10 000.