Sha’Carri Richardson’s comeback story hit a brick wall when Julien Alfred romped in the rain to the 100-meter title in 10.72 seconds to bring the first-ever Olympic medal to her island country of Saint Lucia.
Racing one lane to the left of Richardson, and with water from a fast-moving storm puddling on the purple track in the Stade de France, Alfred got off to a fantastic start, then powered through the rain and beat Richardson by .15 seconds - about three body lengths on Saturday. It was the biggest margin in the women’s Olympic 100 since 2008.
Richardson’ training partner, American Melissa Jefferson, finished third in 10.92 seconds.
All week long, the field seemed to be clearing for Richardson, the reigning world champion who was making her Olympic debut after a positive test for marijuana cost her a chance to race three years ago in Tokyo.
When Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce abruptly withdrew from the semifinal, which went off about 90 minutes before the gold-medal race, the entire Jamaican team that had swept the podium in Tokyo was out of the 100.
One island’s loss is another’s gain. The strongest contender left was Alfred, who hails from the Eastern Caribbean island with a population of around 180,000. She was the only Olympic entrant besides Richardson to break 10.8 this year - and when she and Richardson lined up next to each other in the semifinals, it was a preview of things to come.
Alfred won that race by .05, then lined up next to Richardson again for the final and tripled that margin.
One of the most anticipated races of the Olympic track meet was never a contest.
Alfred had two steps on the entire field at the 40-meter mark, while Richardson, whose starts have been an issue at times this summer, labored to get to full speed.
The American, her arms pumping wide in Lane 7, looked to be making up a bit of ground when Alfred leaned into the finish line. But there was too big a gap between them and the real contest was the one between Richardson and Jefferson for second.
America’s lone gold medal of the day came from Ryan Crouser, who earned a three-peat in the shot put. Another American silver went to the 4x400 mixed relay team, which got reeled in by Femke Bol of the Netherlands in the anchor lap.
Jasmine Moore won a bronze medal in the triple jump competition, won by Thea Lafond, setting herself up for a possible double when she competes in long jump later this week.
Earlier in the day, Noah Lyles finished second (10.04) in a sluggish first-round qualifying heat to make the semifinals in the men’s 100.
