SAINT-DENIS – Julien Alfred cruised in her opening-round heat of the 200 meters the morning after the sprinter from St. Lucia won the Olympic 100.
Alfred acknowledged Sunday she felt tired, but it hardly showed as she ran 22.41 seconds to advance to the semifinals. American Gabby Thomas, the bronze medalist at the Tokyo Games, had the top time in the first round at 22.20 seconds.
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The only real surprise was when reigning world champion Shericka Jackson withdrew from the event for an unspecified reason. Jackson, the second-fastest woman of all time in the 200, previously had withdrawn from the 100 meters, saying it was partly because of a leg injury she suffered in a tuneup race last month.
Fresh off winning the 100, the 23-year-old Alfred is trying to follow in the footsteps of Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica, who won the 100 and 200 at each of the last two Olympics.
Alfred's mission Sunday was simple: take it nice and leisurely.
“To get it out of the way and just come home easy,” she said. "I'm tired.”
Reigning 400-meter hurdles Olympic champion and world-record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone clipped the sixth hurdle and had a couple of stutter steps but still won her heat in convincing fashion.
McLaughlin-Levrone will face a strong challenge from Femke Bol, the Netherlands runner who turned in a thrilling anchor leg on Saturday to bring home the gold for her nation in the 4x400 mixed relay.
Grant Holloway made it look easy, too, in advancing in the 110 hurdles. The American is looking for his first Olympic gold after winning three straight world titles. He was runner-up at the Tokyo Games.
Holloway's teammate Freddie Crittenden took it easy for a very different reason. He felt a tweak during training and wanted to give his body a little more time to recover. So he went carefully and slowly over the hurdles to finish in a time of 18.27, which is more than 5 seconds slower than his season-best performance. He is going to take his chances in the repechage round to try to move on to the semifinals.
This is the first Olympics where track has used the repechage rule to give a second chance to hurdlers and to sprinters and middle-distance runners who don’t move on from their opening heats in the 200 through 1,500 meters.
The 110-meter repechage round is Tuesday.
“I felt some pain,” Crittenden said. “Thank God there’s a repechage round for me.”
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games