Sha’Carri Richardson and Julien Alfred: A budding rivalry to take women’s 100m sprinting into the next stage
When the two women go head-to-head at the Zurich Diamond League for the first time since the Paris 2024 final, they will take the newest rivalry in women’s sprinting into its next phase as the new Olympic quad commences.
The women’s 100m final at Paris 2024 seemed to mark a changing of the guard in women’s sprinting.
For that night in Paris, the top three finishers were all born in 2000 or later, and there was only one Jamaican in the race – Tia Clayton, also born in 2000.
Not present on the start line? Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, two veterans who between them took the previous four titles, nor Shericka Jackson, the world silver medallist, citing an injury.
On Thursday (5 September), the gold and silver medallists from that race – Julien Alfred and Sha’Carri Richardson – will go head-to-head again for the first time since that rainy Saturday night on 3 August at the Stade de France, and look to take the women’s 100m into the next phase with what appears to be a budding rivalry.
Zurich’s Weltklasse Diamond League meet will be the setting for the next stage in this intriguing contest, a first chance for Richardson to remind Alfred and the world exactly why she is world champion.
