JULIEN ALFRED PUT THE BRASH AND BRILLIANT SHA'CARRI RICHARDSON IN A PLACE NO ONE EXPECTED AS SHE MAKES HISTORY CLINCHING SAINT LUCIA'S FIRST-EVER OLYMPIC MEDAL AS TEAM GB'S DARYLL NEITA MISSES OUT ON A MEDAL

Out of a tiny Caribbean island with no Olympic pedigree came the most marvellous of upsets on Saturday night. Wrapped in the pale blue of Saint Lucia, Julien Alfred put the brash and brilliant Sha’carri Richardson in a place no one expected.

She was second across the line with silver on its way to her hands and a scowl of incredulity stretching from one side of her face to the other.

Having smoked her way out of the Tokyo Olympics with a ban for marijuana, who could have predicted her coronation would go down in such flames in Paris?

But enough about her for a moment. Because this was the night for a new name, a new force, a new talent and what a luminous tale it is. Just one year ago, Alfred was cutting teeth on the American college circuit, but here she showed them on the grandest stage of all.

Her golden time of 10.72 seconds was quite exceptional, especially because the beautiful purple track had been pelted with rain for the previous half an hour. It was growing cooler by the minute, too.

But she was second quickest from the blocks – Britain’s Daryll Neita was fastest before claiming a brilliant fourth place – and crucially Richardson was towing anchors. The American world champion, so invincible across the past two years, got upright like a pensioner with a recurring back problem and seemed beaten within the first 10m.

That she recovered to second in 10.87 was a fair effort in relative terms, but for her talent, for a woman who has gone 10.65sec at her best, it was nowhere. She lost by sprinting’s equivalent of a country mile, with US team-mate Melissa Jefferson in third ahead of Neita, who clocked 10.96sec.

Back to Alfreds. She is only 23 and her nation had never previously won an Olympic medal. Her best prior to this year was a Commonwealth Games silver in 2022, but an alarm of recognition went off when she took the world indoor crown in Glasgow in March. Without Richardson there, it felt reasonably meaningless.

But what brilliant mugs she made of such predictions. That started with the semi-finals, where she inflicted Richardson’s first defeat in 13 months and then escalated with a run so fast she almost emerged dry from a deluge.

What brilliant drama on a night that had already seen its share.

For an idea of that, you only had to look at the start line and note the absentees.

First up, that meant no Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, whose claim to be the greatest of all carried serious weight. She suddenly disappeared from the semi-final listings a moment before her race but why? Initially, theories spread that attempted to draw a link between footage of her and Richardson struggling to gain access to the warm up track, though they later faded into the revelation of a hamstring injury.

The upshot was the absence of the 2008 and 2012 champion at this distance.

At 37, she was only ever going to be a fringe contender, but having taken medals in 2016 and 2020, and then run 10.92sec in Friday’s heats, her possibilities had not declined with age. Alas, the loss of the 37-year-old was a significant blow to the showpiece.

A more parochial shade of disappointment followed. Dina Asher-Smith, whose efforts in Tokyo were wrecked by a hamstring injury on the approach to the Games, was chasing some level of redemption. But her form has been patchy since she relocated to Texas last year and the 28-year-old’s season’s best of 10.96sec was well short of the times of her sharper past.

In finishing her heat in 11.01sec on Friday, there was a reflex to think she was building through the rounds, which has long been a strength to offset discussions about relatively modest timings for the very elite, but the semi-final brought reality into focus. By clocking 11.10sec and crossing fifth in what ranked as the gentlest field of the bunch, she had the look of a lost soul.

‘I'm just disappointed because I'm in great shape and have been in great shape all season,’ she said. ‘I fully expected to make that final, the race wasn't even fast.

‘I know I'm in a lot better shape than that. I just go on to the 200m, but again I'm fully disappointed. I should have made that.’

Out of her shadow stepped Neita. She had run 10.92sec in the heats and then went under 11sec again in the semi, dipping in 10.97sec to make the final at successive Games. Tokyo saw her finish eighth and from there she had gone on to win medals at Commonwealth and European level. A late bloomer, she had earned a chance, but on paper her rivals could make stronger arguments.

Of them, all eyes were on Richardson and Alfred, not least for the 10.84sec run by the latter in the semi. Richardson came in 0.05sec later.

But a semi is a semi and a final is all that matters. And when it mattered Alfred was there, dancing in the rain and celebrating by ringing the lap bell. It rang out to mark a brilliant upset.

2024-08-03T19:40:49Z dg43tfdfdgfd