Alfred out to make history again

This weekend, Saint Lucia’s Olympic 100m gold medallist, Julien Alfred, will be attempting a rare feat, as she hopes to add a World Championship title to her curriculum vitae. To do so, the 24-year-old from Ciceron will have to buck history, beat the odds, and overcome a formidable field of rivals at Tokyo 2025.

Alfred is generally felt to be the underdog going into the finals in the morning on September 14, Saint Lucia time. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, the American, has run the three fastest times this year. She is the only athlete under 10.7 seconds, faster than Alfred has ever run. About half the predictions have her taking gold.

Keen observers, however, will say that Alfred is yet to put together her perfect race this season. She has dominated the 200m, which she will contest later in the week. She is also the only other athlete to have gone under 10.8 this year, after beating the American last year in the Paris final.

Trinidad & Tobago’s Ato Boldon, one of the world’s foremost pundits, believes that the final will go under 10.6 seconds, conditions permitting. The 1997 World champion over 200m, Boldon said that on form, Jefferson-Wooden goes in as the favourite. But he refused to rule out the Saint Lucian champion.

Canada’s Perdita Felicien, the 2003 women’s 100-metre hurdles World champion, gives the nod to Alfred. Felicien’s mother is from Saint Lucia. Justin Gatlin, the 2005 and 2017 men’s 100m World champion, predicts that fellow American MJW will get the gold.

Overall, according to the X (formerly Twitter) artificial intelligence engine, Grok, half of the platform’s forecasters expect Jefferson-Wooden to top the podium, with 30 per cent plumping for Alfred, and 20 per cent for Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

Fraser-Pryce, 38, is one of the most iconic athletes of all time. Out of 19 editions of the World Championships women’s 100m, there have been 14 winners. Mommy Rocket, the first athlete to win that title after becoming a mother, has been champion a remarkable five times between 2009 and 2022. She is one of just two women with multiple such titles.

The Jamaican is also one of just two athletes with gold medals in the 100m from both the World Championships and Olympics. She took Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012. Gail Devers of the USA won the 1993 World title, in between Olympic gold in 1992 and 1996. Two-time World champion Marion Jones’ Olympic gold was famously vacated. 

Alfred, if she wins this weekend, would be only the third woman to double as Olympic champion and World champion.

American sprinters have won the women’s 100m nine times, followed by Jamaica with six titles, Germany with three, and Ukraine, one. If Alfred is to buck the odds and take gold, she would be the first outdoor World champion from Saint Lucia.

WOMEN’S 100M WORLD CHAMPIONS