Saint Lucia’s Olympic women’s 100m champion, Julien Alfred, virtually walked through the World Athletics Championships qualifiers on Saturday morning in Tokyo, Japan. The 24-year-old from Ciceron ran 10.93 seconds to win Heat 4, the fastest of seven heats.
Alfred easily advanced to the Sunday semifinal. The top-ranked woman in the event, she came in with the second-fastest times of the year, behind only Melissa Jefferson-Wooden of the USA. In the event, she pulled away from her rivals early and was able to ease off by the 60m mark.
The Saint Lucian recorded a 0.182 reaction time, the 10th quickest off the blocks of the 24 qualifiers. Her heat had a 0.0 metre-per-second wind reading. Only one heat had a positive wind. Sunday’s semifinals will be slightly later in the evening, 7:20 a.m. Saint Lucia time.
Also advancing to the semifinals were Jefferson-Wooden, defending champion Sha’Carri Richardson of the USA, Jamaicans Tina Clayton, Shericka Jackson, and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Italy’s Zaynab Dosso, Britons Daryll Neita and Dina Asher-Smith, American Twanisha Terry, and Ivorian Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith.
Jefferson-Wooden won the first heat in a relaxed 10.99, third-fastest overall. Clayton ran 11.02 to hold off Asher-Smith. Richardson ran a season-best 11.03 to pip Jackson at 11.04. Neita ran 10.94, the second-fastest on the night, to beat Terry.
Dosso stopped the clock at 11.10. And Ta Lou-Smith won the battle of the veterans, beating five-time World champion Fraser-Pryce 11.05 to 11.09.
Saint Lucia will be back in action in the night on September 13 through Aasia Laurencin in the opening round of the women’s 100m hurdles.
