Julien Alfred stuns Sha'Carri Richardson to clinch women's 100m gold at Paris Olympics

Alfred wins first medal of any colour for St Lucia at the Games

Julien Alfred of St Lucia won the women's 100m gold at Stade de France. Getty Images

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St Lucia's Julien Alfred beat the challenge of favourite Sha'Carri Richardson to win the Olympic women's 100m gold medal on Saturday, etching her name into history by becoming the Caribbean nation's first ever medallist at the Games.

Alfred had never finished on the podium at a major outdoor championships prior to Saturday's final. However when the moment came, Alfred ran a superb race to win in 10.72sec after sudden rain swept Paris. USA's Richardson took silver in 10.87sec and compatriot Melissa Jefferson won bronze in 10.92sec.

Richardson, the reigning world champion over 100m, had been backed to become the first American to win the coveted Olympic crown since Gail Devers in 1996.

But the 24-year-old Texan found herself outpaced by Alfred who led from start to finish after exploding out of the blocks at a rainswept Stade de France.

Alfred's gold gave St. Lucia their first ever medal of any colour at an Olympics. The island nation only began competing at the Games in 1996. She won gold in front of 69,000 spectators, just 110,000 less than the population of St Lucia.

It was an incredible performance by Alfred who had fired a warning shot to Richardson in the semi-finals, finishing ahead of the American in 10.89sec.

The semi-final proved to be an ominous portent for Richardson, who was slow out of the blocks and never looked like reeling in Alfred who could even afford to ease up as she crossed the line to clinch gold.

There was major incident ahead of the final as Jamaican double champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce missed her 100m semi-final.

Fraser-Pryce, competing at her fifth Games at the age of 37 and the winner of two golds, a silver and a bronze over 100m, had been due to run in the second heat but appeared as a "did not start" in the official start lists.

Some reports suggested she had picked up an injury.

“That’s pretty surprising to me. I don’t know what happened," her Jamaican teammate Tia Clayton said.

Meanwhile, Femke Bol ran a stunning last lap to lead the Netherlands to victory in the 4x400m mixed relay.

Bol got the baton in fourth place, around 20m behind the leading Americans, but closed the gap in a spectacular 47.93-second leg before passing American Kaylyn Brown just before the finish line.

The Dutch team of Eugene Omalla, Lieke Klaver, Isaya Klein Ikkink and Bol clocked three minutes 7.43 seconds, missing the world record time the Americans set in Friday's heats by just two-hundredths of a second.

USA took silver in 3:07.74 and Britain claimed bronze in 3:08.01.