Muriel Hurtis-Houairi (FRA) (© Getty Images)
The third and final day of 2008 French Championships in Albi was marked by the confirmation of the good shape of the main national athletics' leaders. Ladji Doucouré, Romain Mesnil, Muriel Hurtis-Houairi, Ronald Pognon all won national titles in a promising manner, three weeks before the Olympic Games.
Doucouré – “I currently need training as much as competing”
Ladji Doucouré continued on his ascending form in winning the 110m Hurdles in 13.28 (+2.6m/s). The 2005 World champion seems to be out of the various injuries which have disturbed the last couple of years, including a damaging fall this winter during an indoor meeting.
He opened his season on 15 June with 13.64 and since then he steadily improved : 13.52 in Reims (8 July), 13.51 in Rome (11 July), 13.37 in Saint-Denis (18 July).
Then came the National Champs, where he matched his season best in heats on 25, then lowered this mark to 13.33 in semis. Doucouré knew that no mistake was allowed in a final which included the new rising generation represented by Garfield Darien and Samuel Coco-Viloin. These two 20-years-old, won their respective heats in 13.50 and 13.51. However, Dimitry Bascou, 21, provided the toughest opposition with 13.39 in final.
Doucouré explained how he came back to form after having encountered so many problems. “I basically worked on my power, I had to reduce all the other aspect of my training because I was healing my injuries and trying to protect my body. The main thing was to find strength in my feet, in order to bounce powerfully on the track as do Dayron Robles or Liu Xiang.”
“I currently need training as much as competing. Before the Games, I will use reduced interval at training in order to work on my velocity and my feet, because my coach Renaud Longuèvre still thinks i'm running too ' low '.”
Doucouré will be accompanied in Beijing by Coco-Viloin, who placed only 7th in final (13.78) but already ran a 'legal' wind 13.46 in June.
Mesnil 5.71m on home territory
Romain Mesnil, silver medallist in Osaka World Championships last year was pre-selected for Olympic Games, but was yet to show his form in 2008. After his 5.70 indoors, the pole vaulter couldn't find his marks in his opening competitions of the summer and did three no heights in a row in European Cup, Castres and Saint-Denis Golden League, before setting his outdoor season best with 5.50 in Heusden on 20 July.
“I didn't felt right during my run-up, feeling bad sensations in the last strides (of approach to uprights). It was something very easy to fix technically, so at midnight on Monday, I immediately wrote down the solution on the side of my spikes' bag in order to not forgot! The following days, even if I was exhausted because of repeated competitions, I managed to correct that thing at training, and today, I applied it in competition.”
Indeed, Mesnil cleared 5.71m at his first attempt and narrowly missed three times at 5.81.
“Still, at 5.50 for my first bar, I gave me a fright because I used a too soft pole,” he continued.
Based in Albi, Mesnil, 31, described the support from the crowd: “There were a lot of emotions for me today, a lot of friends came, I took a lot of pleasure today. I managed to stay focused on my competition. I never imagined to have the opportunity to jump at home, so I had a lot of fun.”
Dominant 200m running
Muriel Hurtis-Houairi and Ronald Pognon dominated the women’s and men’s 200m respectuvely. Both came out of the turn with huge margins, and maintained their lead during the home stretch.
The winner of her heat in 22.80 on Friday, Hurtis-Houairi won the final in 22.77 (+1.3m/s) from Lina Jacques-Sébastien, 23.22.
“I'm glad to be able to run without much problems. After my 22.50 in Rome, I was so exhausted I couldn't even walk. My coach Jacques Piasenta was very worried about it, but now obviously it's getting better. I'm upset that the semi-final was cancelled due to a lack of participants, because I was looking to have several rounds as a preparation to Olympic Games,” confirmed Hurtis-Houairi
Ronald Pognon was not the favourite, as the new 100m champion Martial Mbandjock (10.06) was the fastest in semis with 20.69, a new personal best. However, after three rounds at 100m and two at 200m, he couldn't do better than 20.82 in final for fourth place, as Mbandjock was passed by Pognon, the winner in 20.45 (+3.3m/s), David Alerte (20.60) and Eddy De Lepine (20.77) in the last straight.
“I had a very good bend,” commented Pognon, “I managed to stay relaxed and focused as planned, even though the guys were pressing behind. This weekend was my special endurance workout.” Pognon, back in form after a 2007 season plagued by injury, will focus on the 100m in Beijing and plans to run in Monaco for Herculis 2008 meeting on Tuesday (29).
Big Hammer competition…three over 70m
Hammer Thrower Stéphanie Falzon raised her level to another dimension by winning the women’s Hammer Throw competition with 73.40m, from Manuèla Montebrun 72.10 and Amélie Perrin 70.23. All three will be selected for Olympics. Furthermore, with her new personal best, Falzon is now the 24th best ever performer of all-time.
“I'm so happy to win, the level in France is now so high that we all have to give our best to try to win,” said Falzon.
Reïna-Flor Okori won the women’s 100m Hurdles in 12.78 (w+1.5) from Patricia Girard, 40, who,coming back after pregnancy, set with 13.23 a new world age best. Adrianna Lamalle, 12.83 this season, crashed over an hurdle and bumped into an official while warming-up before the semi finals and severely injured her knee, ending her season prematurely.
Elsewhere, shot putter Laurence Manfrédi, 34, won a record of 13 (consecutive) French titles. Salim Sdiri took the men’s Long Jump with 8.15 (+2.4m/s) and Antoinette Nana Djimou Ida, 6.61 (+3.3m/s), beat former World Champion Eunice Barber by one centimetre in the women’s event.
P-J Vazel for the IAAF
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