Christophe Lemaitre in action in the heats of the 200m (© Getty Images)
Nice, FranceChristophe Lemaitre (10.12), Renaud Lavillenie (5.82m) and Eloyse Lesueur (6.91m) were the three individual French winners at the 7th edition of DecaNation held in Nice on Sunday (18), an international match won by USA, from Russia and Germany.
For the occasion, World 200m bronze medallist Lemaitre disrupted his holidays to brings points to the French team.
“I trained on Thursday, the first time since Daegu!” confessed the 21-year-old who resumed his studies in electrical engineering at Savoie University, and thus declined invitation from Zürich and Brussels Samsung Diamond League meetings.
“I came back from Asia very tired and I wouldn’t have run fast anyway,” he said. In Nice, he seemed in trouble from the start as American Justin Gatlin opened a clear margin. But suddenly, with 30 metres to go, the Frenchman opened his strides and leaned first at the finish line in 10.12, 0.06sec ahead the former Olympic and World champion.
“It was a hard race, but fortunately I can rely on my finish! I wasn’t afraid to lose, but I kind of had the obligation to win!”
Lemaitre now has an obligation to go back to his athletic holidays, before participating to an interclub competition on 9 October in La Roche-sur-Yon and resume training for the Olympic season in late October.
Lavillenie celebrated his 25th birthday in a fine manner, pole vaulting 5.82m. This won’t erase the disappointment of his third place in Daegu and second place in Brussels, but the Diamond League winner was satisfied with his last competition of 2011. Opening lower than usual with 5.30m, he needed three attempts to clear 5.50m. Now perfectly set with his marks, he had no problems at 5.67m and 5.82m. Rivals Dmitry Starodubtsev (RUS) and Malte Mohr (GER) cleared 5.60m but failed at 5.72m. The next bar for the Frenchman was 5.92m, in a bid against the World’s leading mark. “I lacked freshness for this height; I lacked energy and felt empty in my last try.”
The performance of the day came surprisingly from the Long Jump pit and Eloyse Lesueur. Her elimination in qualification in Daegu with 6.22m wasn’t on par with her consistent season counting four competitions over 6.70m. But in Nice, she raised her game to a different level.
“For my first jump (6.83m, +0.8, former personal best 6.78m but also 6.84i), I was well past off my marks and closing too much to the board so I had to reduce my strides in order to not foul.” Her coach Renaud Longuèvre told her to lengthen her marks so that she could give her all in the run-up. “Now I could run all-out,” she explained. "But I didn’t manage to put my shoulders forward and I landed still in the sand; when I saw the measurement (6.71m, +1.8), I couldn’t believe it”. Now believing that she could jump much farther, she tried to apply the advice as well as possible.
“I was again a little too close and trembled slightly again, but I managed to produce an the good jump.” She landed at 6.91m, a new personal best which ranks her fourth on the 2011 world list. “My coach knew I had this jump in my legs because he knows his athlete,” said the joyful jumper. “As for me, I can say that it’s when you expect it the least than the surprises are the sweetest.”
This concluded a good season for the 23-year-old, who also receives advice from the European Record holder (8.86m) Robert Emmiyan of Armenia who lives in Paris. “It’s not usual to break a PB in the last competition and I'm proud of it,” she said. “I chose a new approach to the competition, telling myself that I shouldn’t think too much and take pleasure. Now I will take three weeks off but I’m not looking forward to resume training because I know my coach will kill me at work!”
Earlier in the afternoon, a rare attempt in the 4x1500m Relay was made by the French team. Florian Carvalho, Yoann Kowal, Mehdi Baala and Mahiedine Mekhissi, although they all ran under 3:34 this summer, ran 14:52.52 and couldn’t approach the old (1979) national record of 14:48.2, let alone the World Best (14:36.23) set by Kenya in 2009.
Other performances of note were set by Alexander Menkov (RUS) who long jumped 8.20m (+0.2), winning from South African Luvo Manyonga's 7.99m and French triple jumper Benjamin Compaoré's 7.80m (-0.1). Elena Slesarenko (RUS) high jumped 1.95m, two centimetres higher than Frenchwoman Mélanie Melfort. Bronze World medallist Jillian Camarena-Williams won the Shot Put with 18.38m, while her USA teammates Joel Brown (13.31, -0.8) and Yvette Lewis (12.84, +0.7) won the 110m and 100m Hurdles, respectively.
Pierre-Jean Vazel for the IAAF
