Melissa Jefferson-Wooden beats Julien Alfred to 100m title in Chorzów, Poland; Alfred's unbeaten season ends

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden beats Julien Alfred to 100m title in Chorzów, Poland; Alfred’s unbeaten season ends

Diamond League Silesia 2026: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden beats Julien Alfred to 100m title as Sha’Carri Richardson edges third in photo finish

The world champion clocked 10.78 in Chorzów to end Julien Alfred’s unbeaten run, with third place decided by a photo finish.

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden ended Julien Alfred ’s unbeaten start to the season in the women’s 100m at the Silesia Diamond League on Sunday (23 August), clocking 10.78 at Stadion Śląski in Chorzów, Poland.

The reigning world champion, running from lane five with a legal +0.6m

s tailwind, matched her season’s best and finished 0.05 seconds ahead of Alfred.

It was the pair’s first meeting over 100m since last year’s world final in Tokyo, where Jefferson-Wooden won in a championship record of 10.61 and Alfred took bronze in 10.84. Alfred, the Paris 2024 Olympic 100m champion, had come into Sunday’s race unbeaten this season, and took second in a season’s best 10.83.

“Running in a race of this quality feels amazing, I missed it a lot,” Alfred said after. “Melissa is a great athlete and she [deserves] a lot of respect. I still have Zurich, the 200m in Brussels and the 100m at the Ultimate Championships to come. I hope that in Zurich I will race better. It is the start; if I get better there then I can win. [There’s] a lot to work on.

Third place was decided by a photo finish, with Sha’Carri Richardson and Brianna Lyston both clocking 10.96. The verdict went to 2023 world champion Richardson. The double Olympic medallist had entered the race with the fastest season’s best in the field at 10.77 but finished almost two tenths outside it, while Lyston came within 0.02 of her own best.

Silesia Diamond League 2026: Results — women’s 100m

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (USA) 10.78 =SB

Julien Alfred (LCA) 10.83 SB

Athletics | Kamila Skolimowska Memorial | Wanda Diamond League | Silesia | Poland