Melissa Jefferson-Wooden won a 100m over Julien Alfred and Sha’Carri Richardson — extending her unbeaten run since the start of 2025 — in a matchup of the three 2024 Olympic medalists in the event.
Jefferson-Wooden clocked 10.78 seconds at a Diamond League meet in Poland on Sunday. Alfred, the Olympic champion, was second in 10.83 and Richardson, who trains in the same group as Jefferson-Wooden, was third in 10.96.
It was the first meeting among the trio since the September 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, where Jefferson-Wooden won in 10.61, Alfred earned bronze in 10.84 and Richardson was fifth in 10.88.
Jefferson-Wooden also won the 2025 Prefontaine Classic 100m over Alfred (second) and Richardson (ninth), plus won the 2026 Pre Classic 100m over Richardson (second).
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Alfred won in 10.72, followed by Richardson (10.87) and Jefferson-Wooden (10.92).
All three could meet again at the first World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest from Sept. 11-13.
Jefferson-Wooden could become the first woman since 2000 to go undefeated for two consecutive years in the 100m at the top level.
MELISSA TAKES THE DUB IN 10.78 🏃❗
— FloTrack (@FloTrack) August 23, 2026
Results from the LOADED 100m field at #SilesiaDL:
🇺🇸 Melissa Jefferson-Wooden: 10.78
🇱🇨 Julien Alfred: 10.83
🇺🇸 Sha'Carri Richardson: 10.96
🇯🇲 Brianna Lyston: 10.96
🇵🇱 Ewa Swoboda: 11.00
🇯🇲 Tina Clayton: 11.01
🇳🇿 Zoe Hobbs: 11.05
🇺🇸 Kayla… pic.twitter.com/WfMw2e6toh
Also Sunday, Ethan Strand won the men’s 1500m in 3:30.77 over a field that included the last two Olympic gold medalists in the event — fellow American Cole Hocker (third, 3:31.16) and Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen (fourth, 3:31.19).
Strand, a 23-year-old who is in line to be upgraded to 2025 U.S. 1500m champion following Jonah Koech’s ban, earned the biggest international win of his career.
Olympic 400m hurdles gold medalist Rai Benjamin ran a personal best in the flat 400m (43.83, runner-up to world champion Collen Kebinatshipi of Botswana). Then Benjamin indicated in a video that he plans to race both the 400m hurdles and the flat 400m at the World Ultimate Championship.
The schedule:
Friday, Sept. 11 -- 400m semifinals (1:19 p.m. ET)
Saturday, Sept. 12 -- 400m final (12:18 p.m.), 400m hurdles semifinals (1:57 p.m.)
Sunday, Sept. 13 -- 400m hurdles final (12:36 p.m.)
Double up. See you at Ultimate pic.twitter.com/z9jmxuEBkX
— Rai Benjamin (@_Kingben_) August 23, 2026
Earlier Sunday, Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha broke the world record in the half marathon (13.1 miles), clocking 56 minutes, 51 seconds in Buenos Aires.
Kejelcha went 29 seconds faster than the previous record of 57:20 set by Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda in March in Lisbon, Portugal. Kejelcha previously held the world record of 57:30 from October 2024.
At the London Marathon this past April, Kejelcha ran the second-fastest full marathon in history in his debut at the distance — 1:59:41 — second only to the man who won that race, Kenyan Sabastian Sawe, who ran 1:59:30.
