Saint Lucia: Deputy PM Ernest Hilaire congratulates Sprinter Julien Alfred

Saint Lucia Deputy Prime Minister Ernest Hilaire congratulates sprinter Julien Alfred, who was also the first woman to join the National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA, US and was also a three-time Individual in the NCAA Division from Saint Lucia.

Saint Lucian Deputy Prime Minister Ernest Hilaire, who is also the Minister for Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Information, took to his social media recently and congratulated Saint Lucian sprinter Julien Alfred by sharing a post on his social media handle.

Julien Alfred, who was also the first woman to join the National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA, US and was also a three-time Individual in the NCAA Division, recently won the Women’s 100m run at Texas Invitational in Texas, US with a legal wind (+1.8 m/s), which is the fastest performance by a collegiate woman this year, that made her the 5th fastest sprinter in the world.

Reportedly, Julien Alfred has also made several achievements as per of 2023; she broke the fourth-time existing collegiate record in February 2023 and became the first woman in the NCAA to dip under 7 seconds in the 60 metres taking the time of 7 sec at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in Lubbock, Texas. which made her to move her to eight on the world’s list, Alfred Julien was also awarded as the second fastest all-time collegian mark in the 200 m within 23 sec, behind only Abby Steiner, which made her become the fourth largest woman in the world.

At the NCCA Indoors held at Albuquerque and altitude, New Mexico, on March 11, 2023, Julien Alfred covered the long run race in 6.94 sec and 22.01 sec, respectively and took both titles and moved to second on both respective world’s all-time lists. With “the greatest ever one-day sprint double”, Alfred Julien missed Irina Privalova’s 60 m world record from 1993 by two-hundredths of a second but equalled Aleia Hobbs’ North American record. In the 200 m race, only Merlene Ottey’s 21.87 sec dating back to 1993, had been faster.