Gyulai István Memorial Viewing Guide: Sha’Carri Richardson vs Julien Alfred in Battle of Unbeatens
By Jonathan GaultAfter a weekend that included top meets in Lignano and Heusden followed by Sunday’s Silesia Diamond League in Poland, the track & field calendar is even busier this week as there is a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet in Hungary on Tuesday followed by the final two Diamond Leagues before Worlds: Monaco on Friday and London on Sunday. We’ll preview those meets later in the week but let’s start with the Gyulai István Memorial in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, on Tuesday.
The Gyulai István meet has a big budget and typically draws Diamond League-quality fields and the 2023 edition is no exception. Sha’Carri Richardson, Shericka Jackson, Erriyon Knighton, Steven Gardiner, Clayton Murphy, and Julien Alfred are some of the big stars who will be in action on Tuesday. Anywhere there will be getting a bit of mini Worlds preview as the meet takes place just 40 miles from Budapest. Meet details below, followed by a look at some of the best events on the schedule.
Meet details
What: 2023 Gyulai István Memorial
When: Tuesday, July 18. Broadcast window 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET.
Where: Székesfehérvár, Hungary,
Stream the meet live on FloTrack (US viewers) or on YouTube with VPN
Full list of broadcast rightsholders *Schedule, entries, & results
Women’s 100 (11:35 a.m. ET): Sha’Carri Richardson & Julien Alfred put undefeated streaks on the line
After her win over Jamaican champion Shericka Jackson in Silesia on Sunday, there’s a case to be made that Sha’Carri Richardson should be the favorite for the women’s 100 meters at next month’s World Championships: the 23-year-old owns a season’s best of 10.71 and has won all five of her 100-meter finals in 2023, including two Diamond Leagues and the US championships.
Two days after her Silesia triumph, Richardson will start as the favorite in Székesfehérvár, but she is not the only woman in the field who will carry an undefeated record into the race. St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred has won everything at the collegiate level this year, sweeping the 60 and 200 at NCAA indoors and the 100 and 200 at NCAA outdoors for the University of Texas, and she will head to Hungary with a 100% record in the 100 in 2023. Alfred has only raced once since NCAAs, winning the 100 at the Central American & Caribbean Games in El Salvador on July 2 (her time was 11.14 into a 2.2 headwind) so this will be a big test for her.
So far, Alfred has been brilliant in 2023. Her 6.94 for 60m at NCAA indoors was only .02 off the world record, and she ran faster than Richardson’s NCAA 100 record by running 10.72 at NCAAs, though the wind (2.3) was above the legal limit. According to Jonas Mureika’s sprint conversion calculator, Alfred’s 10.72 (+2.3) and Richardson’s 10.75 (+1.6) are both worth 10.84 in still conditions. The two times were run at the same meet on the same track, four years apart, though Alfred was 22 at the time and Richardson only 19.
The point: Alfred, who was one of the athletes who suffered from the timing issues at the 2022 Worlds in Eugene (she was DQ’d for a false start in the semis), is one of the world’s top sprinters and it will be great to see how she handles herself against the woman who has been the best in the world this year. Conditions look great for sprinting (87 degrees and sunny) on Tuesday in Hungary so we could see something fast.
Who wins the women's 100 in Székesfehérvár?
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Men’s 100 (11:45 a.m. ET): Jamaican upstarts head to Europe
The Jamaican championships were noted for the emergence of a new crop of young 100-meter talents, led by Rohan Watson and Ryiem Forde, who went 1-2 in the final on July 7 in Kingston. Watson, 21, dropped his pb from 10.12 to 9.91, while Forde, 22, went from 10.07 to 9.96. Considering no Diamond League has been won in faster than 9.94 this year, those times put both men squarely in the medal conversation at Worlds. Neither has much experience racing in Europe, however: Forde has never run there, and Watson only made his European debut on Friday, winning the 100 in Lignano in 10.11. They’ll be up against veterans Yohan Blake, who didn’t make the finals at the Jamaican champs but ran a seasonal best of 10.01 on Sunday in Silesia, and Marvin Bracy-Williams, who didn’t make it out of the heats at USA but ran 10.10 in Silesia, in this race as well as fellow Jamaican youngster Ackeem Blake (4th at Jamaican champs, 10.15 in Silesia).
Men’s 800 (12:20 p.m. ET): USA vs Australia
After finishing 3rd and 4th at USAs, Clayton Murphy and Isaiah Jewett are heading to Europe as Murphy prepares for Worlds next month. They’re among the top men in this field but will have a battle on their hands against the Australian duo Joseph Deng and Peter Bol, who enter in fine form. On July 8, Deng ran 1:43.99 in Lyon to break his training partner Bol’s Australian record by .01 — a record that originally belonged to Deng before Bol broke it at the 2021 Olympics. Bol, who was provisionally suspended for EPO in January but had the suspension lifted after his B sample returned an atypical finding rather than a positive test, is coming off a pb at the same meet, having run 3:34.52 in Lyon, an improvement of 1.34 seconds on his previous 1500 best.
Men’s 400 (12:30 p.m. ET): Olympic champ Steven Gardiner features
Gardiner, the 2019 world and 2021 Olympic 400 champ, has not lost a 400-meter race that he has finished since the 2017 World Championship final to Wayde van Niekerk, though that streak carries some caveats — he has three DNFs in that span and barely competed last year, missing the 2022 Worlds due to injury. Gardiner hasn’t dropped any crazy fast times in 2023, but he has won all three of his 400-meter finals (44.42, 44.70, 44.64). With reigning world champ Michael Norman battling injuries, Gardiner figures to be the chief challenger to the resurgent van Niekerk, who won again in Silesia on Sunday.
Right now, Gardiner’s 44.42 sb ranks him #9 in the world. He may need to improve on that to win in Székesfehérvár, where he faces Americans Ryan Willie (44.25 sb) and Vernon Norwood (44.39 sb).
Women’s 100 hurdles (12:40 p.m. ET): Fill out your bracket
No running event features the best of the best racing each other more consistently than the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Sunday’s Diamond League in Silesia was the first race in history in which three women broke 12.40, led by world champ/world record holder Tobi Amusan (12.34) and followed quickly by former world record holder Keni Harrison (12.35) and 2019 world champ/2023 US champ Nia Ali (12.38).
After the race, Ali compared predicting the 100 hurdles to filling out a perfect March Madness bracket, such is the volatility in the event. There’s no Harrison in Tuesday’s race, but Amusan and Ali return alongside USA 4th and 5th placers Alaysha Johnson and Tia Jones.
Women’s 200 (1:00 p.m. ET): Shericka Jackson plus Rhasidat Adeleke’s pro debut
Two days after being edged by Sha’Carri Richardson in Silesia, 200-meter world champion Shericka Jackson will return to her specialty distance in Hungary. It’s a tall order to expect Jackson to surpass Gabby Thomas‘s world leader of 21.60, but with a personal best of 21.45, Jackson has the fastest non-FloJo 200 time ever and is coming off a 21.71 into a 0.5 headwind at the Jamaican champs. Conditions should be good for sprinting, but will Jackson be ready to go super fast after racing on Sunday and traveling in between?
The other athlete to watch in this race is Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke, who will be racing for the first time since her monster 49.20 pb to win the 400 at NCAAs. Adeleke, 20, announced on Monday that she has turned pro and Tuesday will be her first race for Nike.
Men’s 200 (1:00 p.m. ET): The Erriyon Knighton show rolls on
Knighton won his first US title earlier this month (Kevin Morris photo)
Unlike 2022, when he opened up his season with an otherworldly 19.49 in April but never ran faster, Erriyon Knighton is taking a more gradual approach to his 2023 campaign. He ran 19.89 in his 200 opener in Florence on June 2, improved to 19.77 in Oslo two weeks later, and ran a season’s best of 19.72 in Eugene on July 9 to win his first US title at the age of 19. All of that is great, but it will likely take faster still if Knighton is to challenge Noah Lyles for gold in Budapest next month. How fast can he run on Tuesday?
How fast does Erriyon Knighton run in Székesfehérvár?
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