Julien Alfred crowned in the 100m ahead of Sha’Carri Richardson, Melissa Jefferson completes the podium

The St. Lucia sprinter on Saturday became the first non-Jamaican Olympic 100m champion since Yuliya Nesterenko in 2004.

First major highlight on the purple track at the Stade de France. Julien Alfred won the 100 m women in 10″72 on a very wet track, ahead of the favorite Sha’Carri Richardson and her compatriot Melissa Jefferson. If the Americans come out of the straight with two medals, they are still chasing gold since the coronation of Gail Devers in 1996 and will try to break this streak in Los Angeles.

Specialist of 60 m, of which she is the reigning world champion, Julien Alfred unsurprisingly started very strongly and managed to resist the comeback of Sha’Carri Richardson. Best time of the semi-finals, she lowered her mark again to achieve her personal record, which is also that of her country, Saint Lucia, to whom she brings the first Olympic medal in history in the most beautiful of metals. The new queen of the sprint will be at the start of the 200 m, from Sunday.

A race also marked by the absence of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who did not show up in the semi-finals earlier in the evening, after having achieved the second best time of the series the day before, in a distance already deprived of her compatriot Elaine Thompson-Herah, double Olympic champion in title, injured. It is the first time since 1988 that no Jamaican has reached the podium of the 100 m feminine.