Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred won her season opener on Thursday at the Oslo Bislett Games in Norway, her first 100m race in 272 days and her latest opener in the event. She stopped the clock in 10.89 seconds to beat Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith into second, and training partner Dina Asher-Smith into third.
With a wind of 1.1 metres per second, the 24-year-old global champion from Ciceron blazed her way to the second-fastest time in the world this year. At 10.73 seconds, only Melissa-Jefferson-Wooden of the USA has gone faster. Alfred has the world lead of 21.88 seconds in the 200m, the event in which she was an Olympic silver medallist.
Julien Alfred’s previous fastest legal 100m opener was 10.95 seconds at the 2023 Texas Invitational.
Thursday’s race came two days after Alfred’s birthday, and one day after she met Usain Bolt for the first time. Bolt, a double world record holder and multiple Olympic champion, is a PUMA athlete, as is Alfred.
”It was my first race of the season so I was a little rusty, but I got the win under my belt which is the main thing,” shared Alfred. “And I got to meet Usain Bolt yesterday for the first time ever, and then after two days running I got to meet him again! It is a great honour to have met him.
“The race itself, I just wanted to be competitive. I head to Stockholm now so I have to rest and travel and compete again quickly but I will go to win again. As for my season, I am the Olympic champion, so I am the one to beat. But I really want to add World Champion to my name as well as Olympic Champion.”
Alfred’s gold medal was her country’s first ever in Olympic history, and she followed it up a few weeks later by becoming the first Saint Lucian Diamond League champion with victory at the series final in Brussels.
Oslo was her first appearance of this campaign, and her first step towards defending that Diamond Trophy.
She will next appear this weekend at the Bauhaus Gala in Stockholm, Sweden, her second stop in the Diamond League.