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Saint Lucia's Julien Alfred runs world's fastest December 60m since 2001

Saint Lucia's Julien Alfred runs world's fastest December 60m since 2001

Article Courtesy Journalist Terry Finisterre

The University of Texas Longhorns Track and Field programme won eight individual events and one relay at the FasTrak Collegiate Opener on Saturday (7 Dec), their first meet of the 2019-20 indoor season. The Longhorns also set nine personal bests at Yeoman Fieldhouse in Houston.

In the women's 60-metre dash, Saint Lucian sophomore Julien Alfred was the fastest in the preliminaries with a personal-best 7.18. She ran 7.23 in the final to stand atop the podium and was six-tenths of a second faster than second place. A product of Leon Hess Comprehensive Secondary School in Saint Lucia and St Catherine's High in Jamaica, the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games 100m champion has definitively declared herself in the early going.

Silver medal at the 2018 Youth Olympics (Getty Images)
Silver medal at the 2018 Youth Olympics (Getty Images)

Her 7.18 was historic in several ways. It's the fastest time in the world, even though it's early in the season (it would still have been a top 25 time last season). Alfred's run was also the fastest over the last 10 years by a D1 competitor in the month of December, per FloTrack's Travis Miller. This run also places her squarely in the top 10 all-time for junior women globally.

Her national-record run has made her the fifth-fastest 60-metre sprinter in Texas history, and it was the fastest run by a Longhorn in the event since Teahna Daniels (USA) won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) indoor title with a school-record 7.11 back in 2016. It was also easily the fastest run by a junior athlete from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and the fifth-fastest by an athlete of any age from the sub-region (including U.S. Virgin Islands).

Saint Lucian Julien Alfred representing the Texas Longhorns
Saint Lucian Julien Alfred representing the Texas Longhorns

On a weekend that also saw 20-year-old Mechaela Hyacinth run a personal-best 7.39 seconds to lead NCAA Division 2 and enter the global top list, Saint Lucia's women's sprints are definitely looking up. 

Among OECS territories, Saint Lucia and Grenada have the most student-athletes enrolled in American institutions for the 2019-2020 season, with 23 apiece. Approximately 120 athletes from OECS Member States are registered with schools and colleges in the United States for the season ahead, and with Alfred in the lead, they are off to a flying start.  

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Terry Corwin Adrian Finisterre Journalist
OECS Communications Unit Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

 

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About The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

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The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is an International Organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal rights, and the encouragement of good governance among independent and non-independent countries in the Eastern Caribbean. The OECS came into being on June 18th 1981, when seven Eastern Caribbean countries signed a treaty agreeing to cooperate with each other while promoting unity and solidarity among its Members. The Treaty became known as the Treaty of Basseterre, so named in honour of the capital city of St. Kitts and Nevis where it was signed. The OECS today, currently has eleven members, spread across the Eastern Caribbean comprising Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Martinique and Guadeloupe. 

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