EU­GENE, Ore­gon – St Lu­cia sprint dar­ling Julien Al­fred and Do­mini­ca leaper Thea La Fond led Eng­lish-speak­ing Caribbean ath­letes on­to the podi­um dur­ing the Pre­fontaine Clas­sic – part of the World Ath­let­ics Di­a­mond League se­ries – on Sat­ur­day in the Unit­ed States.

Sev­er­al Ja­maicans were among the starters – in­clud­ing dou­ble women’s Olympic sprint cham­pi­on Elaine Thomp­son-Her­ah – but on­ly triple jumper Shanieka Rick­etts among them came close to the run­ners-up spots that Al­fred and La Fond took in their re­spec­tive dis­ci­plines at Hay­ward Field.

The show­down be­tween Thomp­son-Her­ah and world cham­pi­on Sha’Car­ri Richard­son of the Unit­ed States in the women 100 me­tres flopped spec­tac­u­lar­ly – and it was left to Al­fred, the women’s world in­door 60 me­tres cham­pi­on, to test to Amer­i­can glam­our queen.

Richard­son made a win­ning sea­son de­but over the dis­tance when she clocked 10.83 sec­onds – six hun­dredths-of-a-sec­ond off the world lead­ing time – and cruised to a smooth win.

She had a good start, but Al­fred had a few steps on her in the ear­ly stages, but Richard­son quick­ened im­pres­sive­ly at the 30 me­tres mark and eased in­to the lead to coast across the line.

Al­fred was sec­ond in 10.93 secs, and Di­na Ash­er-Smith of Great Britain clocked 10.98 to fin­ish third, Thomp­son-Her­ah, mak­ing her first com­pet­i­tive ap­pear­ance since the pre­vi­ous Pre­fontaine Clas­sic last Sep­tem­ber, com­ing at the back of the field of nine run­ners in 11.30.

La Fond, the women’s triple jump world leader this year, fin­ished sec­ond by 11 cen­time­tres when her last at­tempt failed eclipse the mark of 14.73 me­tres by win­ner Leya­nis Pérez Hernán­dez of Cu­ba.

Rick­etts fin­ished with a sea­son’s best dis­tance of 14.55 to fin­ish third.

CMC