Saint Lucia’s Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred made a big statement with her opening 200m of the season, running 21.88 (0.2m/s) at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida, on Friday.
That performance is the second-fastest wind-legal outdoor women’s 200m ever recorded this early in the year and is just 0.02 off Alfred’s national record set in London last July.
She won the race by almost half a second. Favour Ofili was runner-up in 22.34, Tamari Davis was third in 22.37, and Rhasidat Adeleke was fourth in 22.57.
After a couple of indoor races, including a 36.16 300m, Alfred opened her outdoor season with a 4x400m in Austin before running 36.05 for 300m in Miramar two weeks ago.
Last year, the 23-year-old clocked 22.58 in her first outdoor 200m of the season. She went on to claim Olympic 200m silver as well as Olympic 100m gold in Paris and the race in Gainesville was her first 200m since that Olympic final in August.
