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Julien Alfred has revealed what made her triumph over world champion Sha'Carri Richardson in the 100m plus what contributed to her loss to Gabby Thomas in the 200m at Paris Olympics.
Reigning Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred has explained how her semifinal win over Sha’Carri Richardson boosted her confidence going into the women’s 100m final and why she lost the 200m title to Gabby Thomas.
Julien Alfred explained that when she saw the semifinal line-up including Sha’Carri Richardson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, she got into panic mode and at some point, thought she would not make it to the final. In the call room, it was announced that Fraser-Pryce would not line up for the race but that did not ease the pressure since the reigning world champion was still in the mix.
The world indoor champion revealed that she could not change her strategy as wanted to go all the way to the finish line but the fact that she slowed down with about 5m to go and still beat Sha’Carri Richardson was a morale booster heading into the final which she heavily impressed.
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The St Lucien sprint sensation crossed the finish line first ahead of the American sprint queen who was forced to take the silver medal. Melissa Jefferson completed the podium in the tight race.
“When I saw the line-up, I was like, man I have to run tomorrow because I was thinking about how I would execute. Before the Olympics, coach Flo and I worked on visualization of my races but mainly the Olympic final, it didn’t matter who was there. The race came to me so early and I had to psyche myself up mentally and prepare myself for the semifinal that was crazy,” Julien Alfred told Sports Max TV.
“It didn’t really allow me to change my game plan because I had the world champion so I had to stay woke for the semifinal. After the semifinal, I gained so much confidence and crossed the line after executing such a good race in the semifinal and even slowing down in the last 5m of the race, I knew I had the win. I was as relaxed as possible and I think the way the semifinal turned out was the best thing that happened to me and helped me gain confidence,” she added.
Going into the 200m, Julien Alfred disclosed that her poor attitude contributed to her loss. However, she admitted fatigue from running the many rounds in the 100m and heading to the 200m could have proved costly.
“I think fatigue cost me and I was also overthinking a lot…going into the final and it was the last race so I just wanted to get over with it. I was really tired because even after the 100m, I went to bed very late and had two hours rest and had some coffee. I barely warmed up and did some accelerations and my coach was like let’s just go out there for the next round,” Alfred said.
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“When the final came, I did not approach it like I did in the 100m and my mentality towards it is that I will work on it next year and I’m really going to change that. I was overthinking in the final and trying to think of each phase and it was a lot…I should just have run it all out and if Gabby catches me then so be it,” she added.
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