Leslie Djhone (FRA) (© copyright - French Federation)
While France regularly achieves good placings in international events thanks to its female sprinters, in the men's events the country has had a hard time to find successors to Gilles Quénéhervé, the 1987 World silver medallist, and the 4x100m relay team that held the World record at the beginning of the 1990s. Therefore the excellent 200m results this winter of Leslie Djhone have come as good news.
The 22-year old sprinter this season has lowered his personal best from 20.90 - set during last year's European Indoor championships - to 20.51, set a few weeks ago. In the course of the season he has improved steadily - 20.83 in Eaubonne on February 9th, 20.74 in Lievin two weeks later - before reaching 20.51 in the French Championships which took place on the first weekend of March. The time ranks him fifth in the world this winter, the same as Britain’s Marlon Devonish.
However, Djhone enters the World Indoor championships as very much an outsider for what is his sixth international senior selection. His main successes until now include a European junior title in the Long Jump in 1999 with a 7.88m jump, and a bronze medal with the French 4 x 400m relay squad at the European Championships in Munich last summer. There his relay performance didn't go unnoticed, as he came home ahead of European individual 400m champion Ingo Schultz.
The young Frenchman has shown great improvement over the last two years. However, things could have gone quite differently if it hadn’t been for the determination of his first coach, Aldo Canti - who ran 400m and 4 x 400m for France at 1984 Olympic Games - who had detected the kid’s capacities and didn’t want to see such a talent lost.
”I started athletics as a teenager a bit by chance, to please my mother who wanted me to do sports instead of hanging around. But I didn’t like it and almost never went to the training sessions, until the day the coach called my mother and spoke about my absences.” He joined François Pépin's training group – at the French national sports institute – which includes among others 400m runner Marc Raquil and Hurdler Patricia Girard.
After his beginnings in the Long Jump and 200m, Djhone’s career came to a turning point last season when Pépin directed him to try 400m.
”I was preparing for my A-levels and didn't have time to train properly for the Long Jump. My coach was afraid that I could get injured. It turned out that I was never far behind Marc Raquil during the training sessions, so he proposed that I had a try on the distance,” explained Djhone, who ended the summer with a best 400m performance of 45.63.
This winter he has comeback to the shorter distance preferring to work on his speed rather than carrying on immediately with 400m indoors.
”In my mind though, I wasn't going for 'a big season indoors'. We had set a goal of 20.70 with my coach, as my previous record was 20.90. My good results have since convinced us to continue to the Worlds.”
The tall (1.87m) sprinter is aware that his main opponents will be the American champion John Capel, and the defending World Indoor gold medallist Shawn Crawford, and the Briton Devonish.
"Personally, I have the advantage of entering incognito on my side. Don't underestimate Joseph Batangdon from Cameroon, who beat me during the French Championships. Because I had a poor start, he quickly built a 5-6 metres lead, which I managed to close progressively, but I got tired in the last 30 metres and missed the victory by 4 hundredth, " Djhone confirmed.
“The preliminary heats (in Birmingham) could produce some damage as they'll take place at 9am. I'm not at my best that early, that's why my training sessions have been moved forward to get into condition.”
“I consider my selection in the French team for the World Indoors as the icing on the cake after my good results this season, ”that's why I enter the competition without any pressure. I'll just take one race after the other and see what happens.”
Carole Fuchs for the IAAF
