Planning is underway for the 2026 Saint Lucia athletics season, following a remarkable 2025. Led by Tokyo World Championships bronze medallist Julien Alfred, seven athletes combined to set 14 new national records this year, six indoors. Of that number, 11 were set on the tracks, and there were three new junior records.
Alfred kicked the year off by running the 300m in 36.16 seconds, the 15th-fastest time ever, at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston. Later in the year, she ran the outdoor 300m even faster, negotiating three-quarters of the track in 36.05, another national record.
The Olympic 100m gold medallist continued by supplanting Verneta Lesporis’ best time for the indoor 400m, on Valentine’s Day at the Tiger Paw Invitational in Clemson, running 52.97. In the year-ending rankings by the North and Central American and Caribbean Athletics Confederation (NACAC), it was the 17th-fastest run for the season.
The Ciceron 24-year-old was even better over 100m and 200m, second-fastest in the world over both distances. Her 10.75 over 100m at the BAUHAUS-Galan in Stockholm was three hundredths of a second shy of her national record. But her 21.71 at the London Athletics Meet ended up as the tenth-fastest of all time. During that run, she was also clocked at 16.25 for the first 150m, the fastest ever by a Saint Lucian over that span.
Aasia Laurencin and Khailan Vitalis set new hurdles records. Laurencin ended her collegiate career at the University of Michigan with a 7.97-second run in the women’s 60m hurdles at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, and followed up with 12.69 in the 100m hurdles at the Johnny Loaring Classic in Windsor, Canada. Vitalis ran 7.75 seconds in the men’s 60 hurdles at January’s Corky Classic, and 13.83 in 110 hurdles at April’s Jo Meaker Classic and Multi.
Laurencin was 11th indoors in the NACAC region, en route to making the semifinals at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing. She was tenth outdoors, taking bronze at the NACAC Championships in The Bahamas. Vitalis was ranked 14th and 24th in the region.
Also adding to his growing collection of all-time-best Saint Lucia marks, despite an injury-shortened season, Michael Joseph ran the men’s indoor 200m in 20.76 at the Big 12 Championships in Lubbock at the end of February, 12th in the NACAC region. He also ran 46.32 for the 400m at that meet, 13th overall.
The sole senior record set this year in the field wasn’t in an official international event. The indoor weight throw record was also set by an athlete who had not lived in Saint Lucia for some time. But Lauralyn Clifford, who is set to transfer to a new school this fall, was indeed born here. She set a mark of 18.99m in February at the Sun Belt Conference Championship.
Among the junior ranks, rising star Naomi London ran 11.23 in the women’s 100m at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in March. Interestingly, NACAC has that run down as the 24th-fastest in the region this season, and it came only nine days after the Vieux Fortian’s 18th birthday.
Jamaica-based thrower Denzel Phillips, one of the most-decorated Saint Lucian juniors ever, raised the Under-20 marks for the shot put and discus throw. At the Jamaican CARIFTA Trials, the now 18-year-old threw 15.89m and 52.53m, which were the 11th- and 10th-farthest U20 throws in the NACAC region for 2025.
Eight other Saint Lucians were in the year-ending NACAC rankings, which capture the top 30 performances by senior and Under-20 athletes in standard events. Two were left out.
Joy Edward made the list twice, for shot put and hammer throw. The national record holder for the shot put indoors and out did not have her best season in that discipline, but her 15.18m throw at the Last Chance meet in May placed her 21st in the region. She was 22nd in the hammer throw, with a throw of 54.96 at Penn Relays in April. Natalie Albert threw 54.88 at the Tom Jones Invitational on April 24th. But Clifford should have been on the list as well, with a 55.08m effort at York University in July.
The only NACAC-ranked performance actually set on Saint Lucian soil in 2025 was in men’s javelin throw. The evergreen Albert Reynolds, a former NACAC senior medallist, threw 67.63m in February at the George Odlum Stadium. That was 26th in the NACAC list.
Saint Lucia was included in two more junior events in the rankings. Deandre Isidore was eighth in the U20 men’s 400m hurdles, with a time of 54.20 seconds in Jamaica in March. He is only 16 this year. Naya Jules turns 18 in December. The USA-based pole vaulter cleared 3.00m for silver at the CARIFTA Games in Trinidad and Tobago.
Barbara-Marie Maximin, double individual gold medallist Jady Emmanuel, Gabrielle Facey, and Destinee Cenac made the Under-17 4x100m final at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. Their time of 47.64 was the fourth-fastest Under-18 time for the year, and 25th-best overall.
Rounding out Saint Lucia’s inclusion in the rankings were a pair of half-milers, both based on their indoor times. Asa Francis’ 1:51.34 at the Penn State National Open in January placed him 20th. Not included in the rankings is Jayeed Norbal, Francis’ teammate at Coppin State University. But he ran 1:54.53 at that same meet, and should have been placed 26th.
