In the space of one afternoon, France turned what could have been its worst ever showing at the IAAF World Junior Championships into its best result in the 13-year history of the event.

Indeed, never had the French won more than one gold medal in the same edition and here in Bydgoszcz Teddy Tamgho and Christophe Lemaitre overturned the trend as both claimed gold in the men’s Triple Jump and the men’s 200m respectively.

Prestigious names

Previously, France’s gold medal tally had started with pole vaulter Jean Galfione whose World junior title in 1990 would be followed by Olympic gold in 1996 and World Indoor gold in 2001. The “bleus” had to wait another 6 years and the arrival of Sylviane Felix, who won the women’s 200m in 23.16, for their second gold.

Two years later and Muriel Hurtis retained the 200m title for France on home soil in Annecy. Felix and Hurtis famously teamed-up to win the 4x100m relay gold medal in front of their Paris home crowd at the 2003 IAAF World Championships in Athletics.

And then two years ago in Beijing 2006, Benjamin Campaoré set a then World junior leading 16.61 to grab the men’s Triple Jump title, an event in which the French are traditionally strong and as it looks the future generation is keeping up with their illustrious predecessors.

Two goals for Tamgho

Hailing from Aulnay-sous-bois, in the suburbs of Paris, Tamgho came into these championships with two goals: to win gold and to meet the French Olympic qualifying standard of 17.13.

Wearing long stripy blue and white socks, Tamgho was determined to achieve both his goals but as it turned out only the wind denied him. The Frenchman out-classed the rest of the field with a fourth round effort 17.33 but a 2.1 tail wind reading meant his performance would grant him the gold medal but not a ticket for Beijing.

“I am not worried about Beijing,” he explained. “I am certain I can do it at the Elite Championships (France’s senior national championships).”

“For me it is a great honour to be jumping at such a high level.”

About his competition here in Bydgoszcz, his nearest rival being Cuba’s Osviel Hernandez at 16.90, Tamgho said: “I have never felt in danger. Even when the Cuban jumped 16.90, I knew that with one jump he could do better than me but I remained confident.”

19-year-old Tamgho who set national indoor and outdoor junior records earlier this year, came to athletics a couple of years ago after admittedly being saved from the streets. Helped by his mother, Tamgho was showed the way to the local club CA Montreuil and with the assistance of coach Jean Hervé Stievenart has not only become a World champion but has now forgotten about the wrong friendship from the street.

“I want to dedicate this title to God, to my nine true friends, to my team-mate long jumper Olivier Huet who got injured just before these championships and to my coach “Steve” who saved me two years ago.”

“I would never have thought that in just a few months I would have jumped 17 metres. I used to watch other guys jumping that and I thought it was unbelievable. Now it’s not like that is it. I’m not going to stop working hard just because I jumped 17m. This is just the first step.”

Last dip wins it for Lemaitre

France had more to celebrate as in the last final of the day, Lemaitre upset all the pre-event favourites to take the men’s 200m gold in a new personal best 20.83. It was the 18-year-old native of Aix-les-Bains third personal best in three races!

“I am so so happy,” he said straight after his exploit. “I knew I would need to run my best race in the final. I needed not to mess it up.”

Lemaitre had the worst start of the field and was not in medal contention coming into the home straight but his tenacity paid off as he out-dipped Nickel Ashmeade by one hundredth of a second.

The two had already raced each other at last year’s IAAF World Youth Championships where the Jamaican took bronze and Lemaitre finished fifth in the 200m final.

“I saw that it was a close fight and I told myself I had to fight until the very last step. I could see him on the inside so I told myself not to give up till the line. When I crossed the line I wasn’t sure I had done it. But when I saw the result it felt so great.”

“It is an immense joy to be the winner.”

Lemaitre’s potential is amazing especially when you think that he only took up the sport in September 2005 and has already ran 2 World Championships. He admits that he doesn’t look up to any of the French or international sprinters but only runs for the pleasure.

“I run for myself. I train hard in order to steadily improve. Results will come if you train hard.”

Coming off the track after his fantastic race, Lemaitre was loudly cheered by all his team-mates to whom he dedicated his win.

“We have a very good mood in the team. We all train together albeit for different events and are very close to one another,” he said.

“I saw Teddy’s gold and I said I have to win too. This is a historical day for France!”

With two more days to go Team leader Patrick Gellens was very upbeat and confident that there may be more medals to come for the “bleus”.

Click here for event by event reports of all finals

Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF