Julien_Alfred
Julien Alfred
Saint Lucian sprinter (born 2001)
Julien Alfred (born 10 June 2001) is a Saint Lucian sprinter. She won the gold medal in the 60 metres at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships.
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nickname | Juju |
| Born | (2001-06-10) 10 June 2001 (age 22) Ciceron, Castries, Saint Lucia |
| Education | University of Texas |
| Height | 168 cm (5 ft 6 in) |
| Sport | |
| Country | Saint Lucia |
| Sport | Track and field |
| Event | Sprints |
| College team | Texas Longhorns |
| Coached by | Edrick Floreal |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal bests |
|
She was a silver medalist in the 100 metres at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Alfred is the joint North American indoor record holder for the 60 metres.
She was the first woman in NCAA to break the seven-second barrier over the 60 m. Alfred is a three-time individual NCAA Division I champion.
Born in the south Castries community of Ciceron, Julien Alfred attended Leon Hess Comprehensive Secondary School in Saint Lucia (2013–15), and St. Catherine High School in Jamaica (2015-2018). She then pursued a bachelor's degree in Youth & Community Studies at the University of Texas.[1]
Alfred was a Central American and Caribbean U15 champion in 2015. Both that year and in 2017, she was recognised as Saint Lucia’s Junior Sportswoman of the Year.[2] As a junior athlete, she was the Commonwealth Youth Games 100 m champion in 2017, when the Games were held in Nassau, Bahamas. She also captured silver in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina behind Nigeria’s Rosemary Chukwuma.
2022
In 2022, Alfred had the all-time best NCAA performance in the 60 m at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships, running a fast 7.04 s in the heats.[3] Then at the age of 21, she became one of the top 30 fastest women ever. Her run of 10.81 s (+1.7 m/s) in preliminaries of the women’s 100 m at the Big 12 Conference Championships in Lubbock, Texas on 14 May was a Saint Lucia national and championship record.[4] It also marked her as the fastest woman ever from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. At the time, only six Caribbean women had ever run faster, and in the NACAC region 17. The same month, she ran a wind-aided 10.80 s (+2.2 m/s) at the NCAA West Preliminary Round - the fastest time ever recorded under any conditions at the event. She won the 2022 NCAA Division I 100 m/m title in 11.02 s (+0.2 m/s) the day after her 21st birthday, completing an unbeaten collegiate season in that event.[5] Running for the University of Texas, she became the first track athlete from Saint Lucia to win a Division I championship, and just the second Saint Lucian overall, after high jumper Jeanelle Scheper. She next went on to win her event [6] at the inaugural Caribbean Games in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe in a time of 11.07 seconds (-0.2 m/s).
2024 She has made it in the finals of the World indoor athletics still representing Saint Lucia.
2023
On 25 February 2023, Alfred broke for the fourth time existing collegiate record and became the first woman in NCAA to ever dip under 7 seconds over the 60 metres with a time of 6.97 s at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in Lubbock, TX. Her time moved her up to eighth on the world all-time list. She also achieved the second-fastest all-time collegian mark in the 200 m of 22.26 s, behind only Abby Steiner, to become the fourth-fastest woman of all time.[7] On March 11 at the NCCA Indoors in Albuquerque, New Mexico (at altitude), Alfred improved at both these events with times of 6.94 s and 22.01 s respectively to take both titles and move to second on both respective world all-time lists. With "the greatest ever one day sprint double",[8] she missed Irina Privalova's 60 m world record from 1993 by two hundredths of a second but equalled Aleia Hobbs' North American record. In the 200 m, only Merlene Ottey’s 21.87 s dating back also to 1993 had been faster.[8][9] Julien went on to compete in the women's 100m race at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial, crossing the finish line with a time of 10.89 seconds,[10] resulting in a victory over American sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson.
After the end of the 2022–23 academic year, Alfred and TCU football star Max Duggan were named as Big 12 Conference Athletes of the Year.[11]
Selected for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, she qualified for the final of the 100 metres and finished in fifth place.[12] She also competed in the 200 metres at the Championships, and qualified for the finals and finished 4th.[13]
2024
She won gold in the women's 60 metres at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, with a world leading time of 6.98 seconds.[14] It was Saint Lucia's first ever World Athletics Indoor Championship medal.[15]
International competitions
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | CARIFTA Games, U18 events | St. George's, Grenada | 5th | 100 m | 11.90 |
| 5th (h3) | 200 m | 25.34 | |||
| 2017 | Commonwealth Youth Games | Nassau, Bahamas | 1st | 100 m | 11.56 |
| 2018 | CARIFTA Games, U20 events | Nassau, Bahamas | 5th | 100 m | 11.68 |
| Youth Olympic Games | Buenos Aires, Argentina | 2nd | 100 m ev. | 23.22 | |
| 2022 | Caribbean Games, U23 events | Basse-Terre, France | 1st | 100 m | 11.07 |
| World Championships | Eugene, OR, United States | – (sf) | 100 m | DQ | |
| Commonwealth Games | Birmingham, United Kingdom | 2nd | 100 m | 11.01 | |
| – | 200 m | DNS | |||
| 2023 | Central American and Caribbean Games | San Salvador, El Salvador | 1st | 100 m | 11.14 |
| World Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 5th | 100 m | 10.93 | |
| 4th | 200 m | 22.05 | |||
| 2024 | World Indoor Championships | Glasgow, United Kingdom | 1st | 60 m | 6.98 |
NCAA titles
- Track & Field - Julien Alfred, Texas Longhorns, retrieved 11 July 2022
- "Athletics Dominate Sports Awards". The Voice Newspaper. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
- "Julien Alfred Clocks 7.04 the Fastest 60m Time in Collegiate History at NCAA Championships". watchathletics.com. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
- "2022 Big 12 Championships Results". Big 12 Championships. 15 May 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
- "Texas' Julien Alfred wins NCAA women's 100-meter title; Longhorns capture 4x100-meter relay". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
- "2022 Caribbean Games Track and Field Results". Caribbean Games. 1 July 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
- "Weekend Recap: All-Time Marks Canvas Conference Championships Weekend". USTFCCCA. 25 February 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
- Smythe, Steve (14 March 2023). "Stunning NCAA sprint double for Julien Alfred - overseas results round-up". AW. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- "Alfred, Garland and Wilson threaten world records at NCAA Indoor Championships". World Athletics. 12 March 2023. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
- Bregman, Scott (18 July 2023). "Julien Alfred bests Sha'Carri Richardson in women's 100m, Erriyon Knighton finishes second in men's 200m at Istvan Gyulai Memorial". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
- "TCU's Duggan, UT's Alfred Named 2022-23 Big 12 Athletes of the Year" (Press release). Big 12 Conference. 31 July 2023. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
- "Women's 100m Results: World Athletics Championships 2023". Watch Athletics. 21 August 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
- "Women's 200m Results: World Athletics Championships 2023". Watch Athletics. 23 August 2023.
- "Women's 60m Results - World Athletics Indoor Championships 2024". Watch Athletics. 2 March 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
- "Alfred wins historic 60m gold for Saint Lucia". BBC Sport. 2 March 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
