Olympic champion Julien Alfred has pleasant memories of the Tiger Paw Invitational, having set school records and taken top place at the Clemson Indoor Track and Field Complex in previous years. On Friday, she takes on an unprecedented challenge—running an individual 400m.
The 23-year-old, 60m world champion indoors and 100m Paris 2024 gold medallist last year, will run in Section 4 of the women’s 400m Orange on Friday afternoon. Alfred, representing PUMA, will start in Lane 5. Avery Clark of Ohio State will be in Lane 2, Farah Nasir of Virginia Tech in 3, Ramiah Elliott of Texas in 4, and Savannah Sutherland of Tennessee in 6. There are 10 sections.
Alfred set the national record for the 300m two weeks ago. She is further out of her comfort zone with the quarter-mile, but she regularly ran the mile relay during her time at the University of Texas.
At the 2023 Tiger Paw Invitational, she was the third leg of the winning relay, which ran 3:26.73 to set a new school record. They ran faster still at that year’s NCAA Championship, going 3:25.67 for silver. On that occasion, Alfred split 51.2 seconds.
There are some other numbers to note ahead of Alfred’s 400m debut. Georgia’s Aaliyah Butler goes in Section 2; at 51.71, she is the third-fastest collegian this year. The best run over 400m this year has been 50.76 by Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands. Saint Lucia’s national record is older than Julien Alfred, Verneta Lesporis having run 53.82 in 1999.
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I guess that Coach Flo wanted to concentrate on Juju winning the 100m Olympic Gold, else he would have had her run multiple 400m races to ensure she won the 200m as well (as I had been suggesting)!
With the achievement in the 100m Olympic race in the bag, Coach Flo understands that her next goal is to be both the 100m & 200m champion, hence his strategy of letting her run individual 400m. (I humbly bow towards Coach Flo) He has Juju’s best interests at heart & is best placed to advise her for a long & successful pro career!