World Champs: Julien Alfred targets 100m gold after historic Olympic triumph

Saint Lucia’s sprint sensation Julien Alfred has acceptable her sights connected satellite title glory successful Tokyo arsenic she bids to adhd the 100 metres crown to her Olympic title.

The 24-year-old stunned the athletics satellite astatine the Paris Games past twelvemonth erstwhile she defeated reigning satellite champion Sha’Carri Richardson, securing her nation’s archetypal Olympic golden medal successful way and field. Now, Alfred is hoping to go the archetypal pistillate since Jamaican fable Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce successful 2013 to clasp some the Olympic and satellite 100m titles astatine the aforesaid time.

“Being from a tiny land of 258 quadrate miles with astir 180,000 people, it shows nary substance wherever you are from, you tin vie connected the biggest stage,” Alfred told World Athletics. “You bash not request to consciousness inferior oregon tiny to others astir you.”

Alfred enters the championships successful beardown form, having claimed triumph astatine the Diamond League finals successful Zurich past month. She admitted, however, that dealing with occurrence has not ever been easy. After winning the 60m satellite indoor rubric earlier this year, she struggled with slump from the value of expectations.

“Winning St Lucia’s archetypal planetary medal made maine realise however galore radical were supporting me. I felt I had to spell backmost connected the satellite signifier and repay them, and I was suffocating myself with pressure,” she revealed.

Despite those challenges, Alfred says she is present amended equipped to grip the work that comes with being an Olympic champion. “It is simply a dense value for the 1 who wears the Olympic crown. You consciousness it,” she said.

Alfred’s travel to the apical has been marked by resilience. Following the decease of her father, Julian Hamilton, erstwhile she was 12, she moved to Jamaica astatine 14 to prosecute athletics successful the location of sprint greats similar Usain Bolt and Fraser-Pryce. Her Olympic golden was dedicated to her precocious father.

“Dad believed that I could bash it,” she said aft her Paris triumph. “He passed distant successful 2013 and couldn’t spot maine connected the biggest signifier of my career, but I cognize helium would beryllium truthful proud.”

As she prepares for Tokyo, Alfred insists her ambitions spell beyond her breakthrough Olympic moment. “I don’t privation to get swell-headed and deliberation I’ve made it, due to the fact that there’s much I privation to execute successful life,” she told Olympics.com.

The station World Champs: Julien Alfred targets 100m golden aft historical Olympic triumph appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.