Julien Alfred on her way to victory in the 100m at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
Julien Alfred embraced history at the Paris 2024 Games on Saturday (3) as she became St Lucia’s first Olympic medallist in defeating the USA’s world champion Sha’Carri Richardson to take gold in the women’s 100m in a national record of 10.72.
The 23-year-old US-based sprinter, who had powered away from Richardson in the semifinals, repeated the treatment and finished a metre clear with a look of utter joy on her face as Richardson took silver in 10.87 and bronze was claimed by her compatriot Melissa Jefferson, who clocked 10.92.
Alfred claimed afterwards she had drawn inspiration in the morning by watching recordings of Usain Bolt’s most famous victories.
The expected challenge of Bolt’s illustrious Jamaican compatriot, 2008 and 2012 champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce came unexpectedly to naught as she was a DNS in her semifinal.
There was a historic achievement too in the women’s triple jump, where world indoor champion Thea LaFond also became the first Olympic medallist for her country, Dominica. She also made it gold thanks to a second-round national record of 15.02m.
Femke Bol’s addition to the Dutch 4x400m mixed relay team worked to dramatic effect as she moved from fourth to first on the final leg to bring the baton home in a European record of 3:07.43, relegating a United States team that had set a world record of 3:07.41 in qualifying to second place.
In the men’s shot put, Ryan Crouser of the United States was also a history man as he earned a third consecutive Olympic title with a best of 22.90m having recovered from a series of injuries this season.
And the concluding gold of the night, in the decathlon, went – after an agonising delay following the 1500m – to Norway’s Marcus Rooth, who had overtaken the overnight leader Leo Neugebauer of Germany thanks to a personal best of 66.87m in the penultimate event of the javelin.
The defence of the title by Canada’s Damian Warner came to an end earlier in the day when he failed to register a pole vault height.
Bol’s transformative talent earned the Netherlands glory a year after her stumble in the closing metres had given gold in this event to the United States at the World Championships in Budapest.
Bol, who will seek to wrest the 400m hurdles title at these Games from the grasp of world record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, ran a split of 47.93 in relegating a United States quartet that had lowered the world record to 3:07.41 in the previous night’s heats to second place.
Crouser produced early evidence that his recovery from a run of elbow and arm injuries this season has been sound as he took the lead in the shot put with his opening effort of 22.64m.
The initial effect was amplified thanks to a second-round effort of 22.69m. It was as if a gauntlet, rather than a shot, had landed. And a third-round season’s best of 22.90m sealed the deal.
His United States colleague Joe Kovacs, who tops this year’s world list with 23.13m, claimed silver with a final effort of 22.15m, finishing above Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell, who also reached that distance, through a superior second-best effort.
Niklaus Kaul, Germany’s 26-year-old 2019 world champion, had produced the second Olympic decathlon best of the day as he sent the javelin out to 77.78m in the penultimate event.
That followed the discus best of 53.91m set in the morning session by Grenada’s Lindon Victor.
But Rooth did enough with his javelin PB to move from second to first, with Germany’s Neugebauer dropping to second after his 56.64m throw in the javelin. Victor went into the concluding 1500m in bronze medal position after producing the fourth best javelin effort of 68.22m.
And that was where the medals stayed as Rooth finished on a Norwegian record 8796, with Neugebauer totalling 8748 and Victor finishing with 8711.
The first of the men’s 1500m repechage heats produced a wall of noise for the home athlete Azeddine Habz, who was overtaken in the final 10 metres by Ireland’s Cathal Doyle but still took one of the three qualifying places on offer for tomorrow’s semi-finals, along with Italy’s Ossama Meslek.
The second heat saw Australia’s Commonwealth champion Ollie Hoare lose his lead in the finishing straight and fade to fifth as Federico Riva of Italy won in a personal best of 3:32.84 from Charles Philibert-Thiboutot in 3:33.53 and Britain’s George Mills, whose late surge earned him the third place by 0.02.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
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