Saint Lucia’s Olympic champion, Julien Alfred, opened her season over 200m on Thursday, April 30, running 21.86 seconds. It is the fastest time in the world for 2026, and one of the quickest runs ever over that distance this early in the season.
The Caribbean sensation and University of Texas alumna won her event in familiar surroundings, as the Mike A Myers Stadium hosted the Texas Invitational. With a trailing win of 0.5 metres per second, she took first place in Heat 1 and first overall from a field that included compatriot Naomi London and training partner Rhasidat Adeleke.
Adeleke was fourth overall, taking Heat 2 in 22.86 seconds. Nineteen-year-old London was sixth overall and second in Heat 2 in 23.03, a new wind-legal personal-best. Alfred is the only Saint Lucian Under-20 athlete to have gone faster, with three lifetime runs of 23.02 or better.
With her time of 21.86, Alfred supplanted Olympic 200m champion Gabrielle Thomas as the top half-lap runner so far this season. Thomas, who turns 30 this year, ran 21.89 seconds with a +1.7 m/s wind last Friday in Nairobi, Kenya.
For Alfred, 21.86 matches her second-fastest run ever, having previously dropped that time at London’s Olympic Stadium in July 2024.
It is also the fastest ever in the month of April. Last season, Alfred opened in 21.88, the second-fastest time ever in April, behind Christine Mboma’s 21.87 in 2022. Now, Alfred owns the April record outright. Only one athlete has ever gone faster earlier in the year – Marion Jones ran 21.84 in March 1999.
Alfred and London are both registered for the women’s 100m on Friday at the Texas Invitational. Both will run in Heat 1.
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