It was billed as the comeback story, a sprint queen in-waiting to be crowned after missing out on first crack at coronation - perhaps even harshly - in Tokyo three years ago. Bits of the script were on the money, but the main character cast wrong.
With a blistering run, Julien Alfred blew the women’s 100m field apart to wreck Sha’Carri Richardson’s hopes of gold and make history as the first St. Lucian ever to win an Olympic medal, of any colour, in any sport.
On a wet track in the Paris rain, the 23-year-old stormed to victory in 10.72 seconds and by clear daylight, with Richardson second in 10.87 and US teammate Melissa Jefferson third. Daryll Neita was an agonising fourth, just outside the medals and probably not consoled by the fact that her finish was the best of any British woman in any Olympic 100m final since 1948. Dina Asher-Smith disappointed, not even making it that far.
There was, however, a place on the podium for the mixed 4x400m relay team of Sam Reardon, Laviai Nielsen, Alex Haydock-Wilson and Amber Anning, who claimed bronze. That race was a thriller, the USA heavy favourites after breaking the world record on Friday but denied by one of the all-time great anchor legs from Dutch superstar Femke Bol.
This, though, was Alfred’s true breakthrough, hardly a shock after a stellar season to now, but still a first global medal outdoors. True, she had won the World Indoor title in Glasgow in March, but most of the big names were missing, including Richardson, who arrived in Paris as favourite, the world champion from Budapest last year and still even after tonight, the fastest on the planet.
Richardson was already established as the brilliant, brash rising star of the sprint scene when forced out of Tokyo after testing positive for THC, the primary ingredient in cannabis, which she took to help manage grief after her mother’s passing while trying to qualify for the Games.
Alfred’s absence, through an injury that wiped out her season, was less newsworthy, but came following an indoor season in which her promise had just begun to make the odd wave on the American collegiate scene.
SCENES in St Lucia! 🇱🇨
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 3, 2024
This was after Julien Alfred won St Lucia's first EVER Olympic medal, which was a GOLD! 🥇#BBCOlympics #Olympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/tflHc0GaUB
She had grown up idolising Usain Bolt - and watched re-runs of his Olympic finals as preparation this morning - but was in danger of drifting away from athletics after the death of her father while aged just 12. In December last year, Simeon Stephen, the PE teacher at her secondary school in Castries she credits with spotting her talent and keeping her quite literally on the track, passed away, too.
Tonight, in the St. Lucian capital, they will celebrate hard, but will not be alone. Remarkably, 20 minutes later, Dominica also claimed their first ever Olympic medal, and that, too, an athletics gold, delivered by Thea Lafond in the women’s triple jump. Between them, the two Caribbean islands have a population of around 250,000. How’s that for a global sport?
Paris always felt likely to witness a changing of the guard in women’s sprinting and that was confirmed before the evening’s semi-finals had even begun, when Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce - a medalist in this event at four Olympics on the bounce - was declared a shock non-runner at what is her final Games.
No reason has yet been given, and if it is not injury she could yet run in the 4x100m relay. But the 37-year-old’s withdrawal meant that, with Shericka Jackson focusing on the 200m and Elaine Thompson-Herah injured, not one of the Jamaican trio that swept the podium in Tokyo would even be in contention to follow up here.
Nor, it turned out, would Asher-Smith, part of Alfred’s training group in Texas but only fifth in a modest opening semi-final, meaning she did not even have to hang around to sweat on a fastest-loser spot.
If that early exit was some way beneath the 28-year-old’s Paris expectations then a week ago, Reardon had none at all.
The 400m man was not initially included in the team for these Games, having missed the early season and British trials with a hamstring problem. Taking a second off his PB in London at the end of last month, though, put him in the box seat when a late injury replacement was required and here he led the team off superbly.
Nielsen and Haydock-Wilson ensured the Brits were in podium contention at every change. Knowing, though, that with Bol to come last for the Dutch the position might be false, Anning on the anchor went out hard and surged past the Belgians into silver down the back straight.
With 150 metres to go, Bol was still only fourth, but off the bend she was extraordinary, catching Anning and then America’s Kaylyn Brown with track to spare en route to a quite staggering 47.93 split.
This was reward for the Dutch, and Bol in particular, for throwing everything at an event others shun for the sake of slimmer solo hopes. Denying the Americans, too, with such a devastating show of form added another layer of excitement ahead of next week’s hurdles showdown against Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
