Julien Alfred’s transition to the professional ranks of track & field has gotten off to about as good a start as anyone could’ve ever imagined.

The 22-year-old St. Lucian standout, fresh off a dominant 2023 collegiate season for the Texas Longhorns that saw her claim the Bowerman award, has started the 2024 indoor season brilliantly.

Alfred, a 100m silver medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, opened her season with a pair of wins at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic in Albuquerque from February 2-3.

She first won the 200m on February 2 with a world leading 22.16, the fifth fastest indoor 200m time ever. Alfred also has the second fastest time ever with 22.01 done during her dominant 2023 season at Texas.

A day later, she won her heat of the 60m in 7.15 before returning to run 7.04 to win the final, a world-lead at the time.

At the Millrose Games on February 11, Alfred became the first woman to dip below the 7-second mark this season with a world-leading 6.99 for a dominant victory.

“I feel very pleased. I feel like I could’ve executed better but overall, I feel good. My body feels good and mentally I’m there,” Alfred said in a post-race interview.

She says that despite some difficulty having to adjust to a new routine, her transition from the collegiate ranks to the pro ranks has been smooth.

“Training has been really good. The fall was a bit difficult for me adjusting to having no school and no routine but I’m getting used to it now. I did take some time off and it was really needed so the transition has been really smooth,” she said.

Alfred is also joint-second on the all-time list in the 60m with 6.94, also done in 2023, and, after her performance on Sunday, feels like she is ready to challenge Irina Privalova’s world record 6.92 done all the way back in 1993.

“I feel really good about the performance to be honest and I really felt like I was ready to go after the world record but I’m just going to go out there and keep training and see what I can do at World Indoors,” she said.

The World Indoor Championships are set for March 1-3 in Glasgow and Alfred says that, despite some obvious goals for the upcoming outdoor season, this is all she is focused on right now.

“I’m just thinking about World Indoors and not down the line. When the time comes for that I’ll think about it but for now I’m taking it one race at a time,” she said.

When the time does come to move her focus to the Paris Olympics, Alfred says her goal is to be St. Lucia’s first ever Olympic medallist.

“I don’t have a time in mind at all but I definitely want to medal in Paris. That’s my biggest goal as of now. I’d be happy just to get a medal for my country because my country has never gotten a medal at the Olympics so I would love to be the first,” she said.

Following her electrifying run that resulted in a new world record at the Millrose Games in New York on Sunday, Bahamian sprint hurdler Devynne Charlton is poised to rewrite the record books again, perhaps as early as next month at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.’

Charlton stunned the sellout crowd at the Millrose Games with a jaw-dropping time of 7.67 seconds that shattered the previous world record of 7.68 seconds set by Sweden's Susanna Kallur back in 2008.

In a post-race interview, Charlton said she wasn’t surprised at the time she ran, indicating that training has been going really well. Rolando ‘Ronnie’ Greene, the Head Track Coach at the University of Kentucky and mastermind behind Charlton's remarkable journey, was also not surprised by the performance revealing that she ran that all-time best while still having the effects of heavy training in her legs.

"It was not a surprise at all. I told her and her training mate, Masai Russell; I said to them, one of you going to break the world record, you have to decide which one is going to do that,” he emphasized, highlighting the rigorous training and unwavering dedication that paved the way for Charlton's historic performance. "Just the things she's been doing in practice; the numbers she's been putting up... I knew the world record was going to fall,” said Greene, who has seen Charlton produce times of 7.88, 7.82, 7.75 and 7.76 heading into New York on Sunday.

“The only thing that we did differently (last week) was I didn't let her pull sled. That's the only thing we did, everything else remain the same. Normally on Mondays we would do some contrast work where we're pulling sleds for four to six times 40 metres with 90 seconds recovery. That's the only thing I took off the plate before this past week before she went to New York. Everything else remained the same, the same amount of volume, the same amount of hurdling.”

He said he made a few tweaks to her technique after her run in Boston the week before she ran on Sunday.

Greene, who has coached Charlton ever since she was standout athlete at Purdue University and who has now given him his first world record, told Sportsmax.TV that she has been racking up scary numbers in training all season.

She's stronger, she's lighter, she's doing things that she's never done. The power to weight ratio in terms of her body weight to what she's cleaning, to what she's squatting is through the ceiling right now. Devynne is five feet, three, 3 1/2 inches. She was 126 lbs last year, she's now 119. She paralleled 325 lbs in a squat and she pulled right at 200 lbs in a clean, so that's almost doubling her body weight. However, you want to put it is much greater, she's never been able to do that before.”

These startling numbers are among the reasons why he feels she will be even faster when she lines up in the 60m hurdles next month.

“We'll do a small taper for Glasgow, I think. People will say, you're not saying this, but I believe she can she can threaten the world record. I think she's got another half a 10th in there or something.”

With the Olympic Games in Paris less than six months away, Greene also believes that this is the year when Charlton should be among the medals, if not at the very top of the podium. She was seventh at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and seventh at the World Championships in Oregon a year later.

In Budapest in 2023, she came closest to a place on the podium when she finished fourth. This time, things are likely to be a lot different. "I truly believe that she is going to be a major factor going forward. She is at that right age of 27/28 when I think athletes hit their peak, their prime, she is at that point,” Greene opined.

“In life, there is a timing that God releases in our lives to accomplish things when we stay the course and I think this is that timing.”

He revealed that when she finished fourth in Budapest last year, in her disappointment, she told him she wished she hadn’t come so close. “She said I wish I was sixth and I said ‘no, baby girl, the devil is alive. You got fourth it just wasn’t your time and when that time arrives, no one can stop it. Nothing or no one can stop it.”

Charlton will race next in Madrid before returning to her training base for a few days of training before they depart for Glasgow.

World Athletics and Sony Corporation (Sony) today (23) announced a new three-year agreement that will see Sony sponsor World Athletics Series events from 2024 to 2026.

As part of the sponsorship, Sony will support all World Athletics Series events starting from the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 in March. The agreement will also include the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 to be held in Tokyo, Japan, in September 2025.

Sony Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation and is responsible for the Entertainment, Technology & Services (ET&S) business. With the vision to "continue to deliver Kando and Anshin* to people and society across the world through the pursuit of technology and new challenges," Sony Corporation supports the Sony Group with technology to create the entertainment of the future together with creators.

Both parties came to this agreement based on a mutual understanding of each other’s philosophy.

Sony aims to work with creators and leverage the power of technology to generate emotion-filled experiences for sports fans across the globe and capture them on film and in photographs.

Sony will further enhance emotion from athletes’ awe-inspiring achievements captured by content creators, including photographers, and deliver them to the world through cutting-edge technologies like the Alpha™ mirrorless interchangeable lens camera and versatile interchangeable lens including G Master™, system cameras and broadcast solutions.

In addition, Hawk-Eye Innovations, which has a proven track record of providing services for international events in a variety of sports, will contribute to fair competition management through its officiating services.

“We are entering an exciting few years for our sport and I can think of no better partner than Sony to help us capture the excitement, the thrill and the breathtaking performances our sport promises to bring,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. “As the No.1 Olympic sport, the eyes of the world will be squarely focused on athletics this year as our athletes compete across our five World Athletics Series events, plus Paris.

“We look forward to the outstanding photographs Sony will capture at our events to immortalise these many moments in our sport’s history.”

Hiroki Totoki, President, COO and CFO of Sony Group Corporation, said: “We are delighted to have reached an agreement with World Athletics to sponsor their World Athletics Series events, which are known as the world's top competitions in athletics.

“Based on our purpose to ‘fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology’, Sony will contribute to the development of sports by leveraging technology to enhance the emotion generated by sports and deliver it to sports fans around the world.”

Six-time World champion Noah Lyles says his next goal is to add some indoor hardware to his collection.

Speaking in an interview with Trinidadian legend Ato Boldon last week, Lyles says his next goal is to take home the 60m world title at the upcoming World Indoor Championships set for March 1-3 in Glasgow, Scotland.

“The goal is to win the World Championships indoor,” the 26-year-old told Boldon.

To win that crown, Lyles will likely have to beat countryman and current World indoor 60m record holder, Christian Coleman, who took gold at the 2018 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham. Coleman set the current world record 6.34 earlier that year. 2022 World 100m champion Fred Kerley will also compete indoors this season.

Lyles is coming off a phenomenal 2023 outdoor season. He won a trio of gold medals at the World Championships in Budapest in August, becoming the first man since Usain Bolt to achieve the feat.

At those World Championships, Lyles produced a new personal best of 9.83 to win his maiden World 100m title.

Lyles also had one of his best indoor seasons last year, including a personal best 6.51 to win the 60m at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in New York last February.

He has never competed at the World Indoor Championships.

Devynne Charlton became the first Bahamian woman to medal in the 60m Hurdles at the World Indoor Championships when she won silver in Belgrade on Saturday.

Charlton ran a Bahamian national indoor record 7.81 to take silver behind France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela who ran 7.78 for gold. The USA’s Gabby Cunningham was third in 7.87. Jamaica’s Britany Anderson narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in 7.96.

In the Men’s 60m final, Olympic 100m champion, Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy continued his steady rise to the top of men's sprinting by running a European indoor record 6.41 to win gold ahead of former champion Christian Coleman who ran the same time. Marvin Bracy ran 6.44 for third.

Bahamian superstar, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, added to her massive trophy case by winning gold in the Women’s 400m at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade on Saturday.

Adding to a bronze medal in the 400m from the 2014 World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Miller-Uibo got a good lead on the field at the start and used her strength to carry her home in a time of 50.31. Dutch 400m Hurdles Olympic bronze medallist Femke Bol was second in 50.57, while Jamaica’s Stephenie Ann-McPherson was third in a national indoor record 50.79.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards ensured the Caribbean swept the 400m events with a brilliant championship record 45.00 to win gold ahead of the USA’s Trevor Bassitt (45.05) and Sweden’s Carl Bengstrom (45.33).

The 2017 World Championships 200m bronze medallist now has two World Indoor Championships medals after his bronze from the 4x400m in the 2012 edition in Istanbul.

Devynne Charlton and Britany Anderson finished first and second in the first semi-final of the Women’s 60m to advance to the final scheduled for later on Saturday.

Charlton capitalized on a bullet start to cross the finish line in 7.81, a Bahamian national indoor record, while Anderson ran 7.85 for second.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Jerod Elcock advanced to the final of the Men’s 60m after finishing second in the first semi-final in 6.63 behind the USA’s Marvin Bracy who eased to 6.51 for the win.

A big clash is expected in the final, later on Saturday, between Italy’s Olympic 100m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs and 2019 World 100m champion and 2018 World Indoor 60m champion and world record holder Christian Coleman. Jacobs won semi-final two in a world-leading 6.45 while Coleman won the third semi-final in 6.51.

Jamaica’s Britany Anderson and the Bahamas’ Devynne Charlton both advanced to the semi-finals of the Women’s 60m Hurdles at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade on Saturday morning.

Charlton won the fifth heat in 8.02, while Anderson finished third in the sixth heat, in 8.10.

The region will be well represented in the semi-finals of the Men’s 60m as well. Mario Burke of Barbados and Jamaica’s Nigel Ellis both ran 6.64, a personal best for Ellis, to finish second and third in the second heat to advance.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Jerod Elcock finished second in heat five with 6.63 to progress, while heat six saw Guyana’s Travis Collins and Rikkoi Brathwaite of the British Virgin Islands run the same time (6.66) to finish as the top two.

The semi-finals and finals of both the Women’s 60m Hurdles and Men’s 60m are scheduled for later on Saturday.

Jamaica's Natoya Goule won her heat in 2:01.65 to advance in the Women’s 800m. The final is scheduled for Sunday.

Briana Williams, Michelle Lee-Ahye and Shericka Jackson all advanced to the final of the Women’s 60m at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade on Friday.

Williams followed up her personal best 7.06 in the heats with a time of 7.07 to win the third semi-final ahead of Lee-Ahye who ran 7.12 for second place and an automatic berth in the final.

Jackson came third in the first semi-final and qualified as one of the fastest losers with a personal best of 7.08. The final is scheduled for later on Friday.

Stephenie Ann-McPherson won semi-final one of the Women’s 400m in 51.26 ahead of Femke Bol (51.28). Aliyah Abrams of Guyana finished third in 51.57 to also advance to the final. Shaunae Miller-Uibo looked in ominous form, easily winning semi-final two in a comfortable season’s best 51.38.

Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago put himself in position for a medal when he won his semi-final heat in 46.15.

It was bad news for Christopher Taylor who appeared to suffer an injury and did not finish his semi-final heat.

The Women’s and Men's 400m finals are scheduled for Saturday.

Briana Williams ran a lifetime best to cruise into the semi-final round of the Women’s 60m dash as she debuted at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade on Friday morning Caribbean time.

If Ato Boldon’s words are anything to go by, we should expect big things from his pupil Briana Williams at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.

Williams, who was selected on Jamaica’s team for the 60m, started her season on January 14 at the Purple Tiger meet in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with times of 7.20 in the preliminaries and 7.18 in the final.

On January 29^th, the Olympic 4x100m relay gold medallist ran 7.22 to finish fourth at the Millrose Games in New York. She returned to New York a week later at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix running 7.09 in the preliminaries, a personal best, and 7.11 in the final.

“The Briana that ran 7.19 in January and 7.09 in February has improved steadily and I think she’s ready to be a factor in Serbia,” Boldon, the four-time Olympic and two-time World Championship medallist, said in an interview with Sportsmax.Tv.

“Is there another 60m PR coming? I believe so. That’s why we are going,” he added.

The World Indoor Championships will be held from Friday, March 18-Sunday, March 20 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Ewa Swoboda (6.99), Marybeth Sant-Price (7.04), Mujinga Kambundji (7.05), and Mikiah Briscoe (7.07) are the only participants that have gone faster than Williams this season.

World-leader in the 60m hurdles Danielle Williams, Britany Anderson and Natoya Goule are among the medal contenders named to Jamaica’s team to the World Indoor Championships in Serbia from March 18-20.

Williams set a world-leading time of 7.75 at Clemson on February 11, which makes her a medal favourite for the championships. Anderson, 21, ran a lifetime best of 7.82 in Louisville, Kentucky, making her fourth-best in the world this year. Besides her compatriot, only Americans Kendra Harrison and Alia Armstrong, who have both run 7.81 have gone faster.

Goule, who ran world-leading times twice so far this season, has the second-fastest time in the world over 800m this indoor season. Her 1:58:46 set in France on February 17, is only bettered by Keely Hodgkinson's 1:57.20 set in Birmingham on February 19.

The 19-member team also includes Briana Williams, whose 7.09 makes her the second-fastest Jamaican and sixth-fastest in the world over 60m this year and Shericka Jackson, whose personal best of 7.12 makes her the third-fastest Jamaican and tied for 14th in the world for 2022.

The female dominant team also includes Danielle Thomas-Dodd for the shot put, Kimberly Williams in the triple jump as well as Roneisha McGregor and Stephenie-Ann McPherson for the 400m.

 Junelle Bromfield, who is an alternate for the 400m, Tiffany James, Tovea Jenkins, Janieve Russell as well as McPherson and McGregor comprise the 4x400m relay squad.

Christopher Taylor has been named for the 400m while Ronald Levy will go in the 60m hurdles and Nigel Ellis will compete in the 60m dash.

World Athletics has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine but said, for now, there are no plans to relocate the 2022 World Race Walking Team Championships scheduled for March 4-5 in Muscat, Oman or the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships scheduled for March 18-20 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this week drawing outrage from governments and sporting organisations across the globe. World Athletics joined the throng on Thursday in a statement released on its website and on several media platforms.

In the statement, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe is said to have spoken to senior vice-president Sergey Bubka and the Ukraine Athletics Federation offering support.

Since 2015, the Russian Athletics Federation has been suspended from World Athletics due to doping violations and is, therefore, ineligible to host World Athletics events or send teams to international championships.

Jamaica’s Olympic gold medallist Briana Williams will be made available to represent Jamaica at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade from March 18-20.