Justin Gatlin weighs in on Julien Alfred's coach Edrick Floréal’s plan to make her ‘dominant double threat'

Former American track athlete Justin Gatlin opened up about coach Edrick Floreal's plans with 200m Olympic champion, Julien Alfred. Floreal has been working with Alfred for more than five years, and under his guardianship, the Saint Lucian athlete also won two Olympic medals last year.

This comes after Alfred's 300m matchup with five-time Olympic medalist Shericka Jackson just a few weeks ago, which the Saint Lucian won in 36.05 seconds. A few days later, during a conversation on Gatlin's Ready Set Go podcast, he weighed in on the probable planning behind Alfred running the long distances before making it to her specialization, 100m and 200m.

Gatlin stated that Edrick Floral is trying to make Alfred a significant threat in the 100m and 200m distances. Additionally, he mentioned that owing to this, Alfred is running the 4x400m relays and following it up with 300m and then moving to the 200m distance, which becomes relatively easy after running the former two events:

"Speaking a little bit about Flo, I understand what he's trying to do with Julien, you know, he's getting her ready as a dominant double threat and to do so you start high and start to come back down. So you running those 4x4's, you come down to that three (300m), see where you at in pure speed and endurance and you drop down to that two (200m), that two becomes easy. Now you droping those 21's all over the board." (54:21 onwards)

Julien Alfred also ran and won the 400m at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational and the 4x400m at the Texas Relays.

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Julien Alfred opens up on the positives taking place in St. Lucia since her 2024 Olympics success

Julien Alfred (Image via: Getty)

Julien Alfred commented on the positive development that her country, St. Lucia, has seen since her performance at the French capital last year.

In an interview, Alfred shared that after becoming the tourism ambassador of her nation, she has used her social media to promote her nation to a broader spectrum. She added that her country has seen several other positives, such as St. Lucia winning their cricket league last year:

"I mean becoming a tourism ambassador since winning, also using my platform and my voice to also promote my country on a different level but since winning the Saint Lucia Kings cricket, the've won, so many thing have gone well in St. Lucia especially since win." (via runnerspace, 4:35 onwards)

Alfred also remarked that several other fields, such as academics, have been doing quite well, which helps her country in its upliftment on the global level.