After a dismal individual Olympic performance in the Stade de France, European champion Dina Asher-Smith will also compete. The top two finishers from Paris 2024 will face off again.
The Weltklasse Zurich Diamond League track and field competition on September 5th is scheduled to pit Olympic 100-meter gold and silver medallists Julien Alfred and Sha’Carri Richardson against one another. This is the first time world champion Richardson will have the opportunity to face Alfred again, who took home Saint Lucia’s first two Olympic medals in Paris, since the Paris 2024 final on August 3 at the Stade de France.
Alfred made history that evening as her nation’s first Olympic champion when, in the pouring rain in Paris, she capitalised on a quick start to fend off a charging Richardson, who had to overtake a sluggish reaction out of the blocks to catch up. Richardson has developed a terrible habit of starting slowly. She faltered at the start of the U.S.
Olympic Trials, but recovered to win, and had to beat Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson before earning gold at the World Championships the previous year. Richardson went on to anchor the U.S. women’s sprint relay to 4x100m gold in another incredible down-but-not-out victory, going from fourth to first on her leg, but there was to be no successful comeback from that sluggish start in Paris. “We all experienced an incredible sensation,” she remarked upon eventually holding Olympic gold. Richardson and her St. Lucian opponent Dina Asher-Smith, the European champion from Great Britain, will also be competing in this rematch with Alfred after the latter unexpectedly failed to qualify for the Olympic final in Paris. Asher-Smith was denied the opportunity to challenge Richardson and Alfred after placing fifth in her semi-final heat at the Stade de France. Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland, who finished sixth in the Paris final, is also expected to excel in the Weltklasse 100m on home ground.
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