A straightforward 200m victory for Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred was among the highlights of Saturday’s Boris Hanžeković Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia. The fastest woman in the world this year over that distance, the Saint Lucian eased to victory in 22.15 seconds to defeat an unfancied field.
Alfred ran 21.88 seconds in the USA just over a month ago to set the world lead. This time around, perhaps with her eye on bigger meets to come in June, the 23-year-old’s time of 22.15 was still tied for the fifth-fastest of the season. Only one other woman, Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas, has gone under 22 seconds so far this year.
Running out of Lane 7 with a slight negative wind of -0.8 metres per second, Alfred powered through the first 100 metres, before cruising to victory on the home straight. The meet record of 22.05 by Christine Mboma remains intact. Spain’s Jaël Bestue ran a season’s best 22.92, well back in second place. Hungary’s Boglárka Takacs did a season’s best 23.22 for third.
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Boris Hanžeković Memorial was this week awarded the World Athletics Heritage Plaque in the category of ‘Competition.’ The World Athletics Heritage Plaque is a location-based recognition, awarded for an outstanding contribution to the worldwide history and development of the sport of athletics.
The Boris Hanžeković Memorial originated as an inter-club duel between Mladost and Dinamo and became an international event in 1962. In the following years, numerous good athletes from the Soviet Union, Hungary, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Cuba participated in the meeting, and soon also others from Austria and West Germany.
