St Lucia’s Julien Alfred and Jamaica’s Oblique Seville stamped their authority with stunning performances at the London leg of the Wanda Diamond League, as they delivered the kind of speed and precision that turned heads and raised expectations ahead of the World Athletics Championships.
Alfred, the Olympic 200m silver medalist, stormed to a world-leading, meet record and personal best 21.71 seconds in the women’s half-lap event. Her performance blew past the previous meet record of 21.82s set by American Gabby Thomas and left the British pair of Dina Asher-Smith (22.25s) and Amy Hunt (22.31s) in her wake.
In the men’s 100m, Seville stunned rivals, as all the pre-race talk centred around Olympic champion Noah Lyles and Botswana's rising star Letsile Tebogo. But Seville had other plans, as he exploded out of the blocks to post an impressive 9.86 seconds, beating Lyles (10.00s) convincingly, with Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes (10.02s) and fellow Jamaican Ackeem Blake (10.08s) in the chasing pack.
Elsewhere, the results were a mixed bag for the Caribbean contingent.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, Jamaican duo Andrenette Knight and Janieve Russell placed third (57.39s) and eighth (1:00.55), respectively, as Dutchwoman Femke Bol registered a dominant 52.10s victory. American Jasmine Jones (53.18s) was second.
Shafiqua Maloney of St Vincent and the Grenadines clocked 1:58.47 for fifth, while Natoya Goule-Toppin of Jamaica struggled to find her best and finished eighth in 1:59.27 in the women’s 800m. The race was taken by Great Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell (1:56.74), who produced a brilliant late surge. American Addison Wiley (1:57.43) and Uganda's Halimah Nakaayi (1:57.62) were second and third, respectively.
The men’s long jump saw Jamaican Wayne Pinnock, who confirmed his move to Türkiye, finish tops with a leap of 8.20m to edge Greek Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (8.19m). Jamaica's Carey McLeod sealed third place with 8.10m, as Tajay Gayle did not start.
In the men’s discus, Olympic champion Roje Stona, also rumoured to be switching national allegiance to Türkiye, placed sixth with a 64.71m effort. The event was won by Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania, who flung the disc a massive new meet record of 71.70m.
Meanwhile, Jamaican standout Lamara Distin could only manage 1.85m in the women’s high jump, as she ended the day in seventh. The event was won by Great Britain’s Morgan Lake at 1.96m.