Christophe Lemaitre, for the nth time, lowered his French 100m record to 9.92s. Lemaitre edged out walloped fellow youngster Jimmy Vicaut, the newly-minted European Junior Champion, for the French national title.
The rangy Lemaitre started sluggishly (as usual), as Yannick Lesourd powered on to an early lead. In his trademark second-half burst, Lemaitre turned on the afterburners en route to his seventh trip under the ten-second barrier. It was a high quality field as Vicaut (10.07s) and Martial Mbandjock (10.17s) strutted world-class times, speaking volumes about the depth of French athletics.
The 21-year old shaved off two-hundredths of a second from his erstwhile PB, a new European U23 record (his fourth for this year), the ninth fastest time in 2011 and the third fastest time by European since Francis Obikwelu (9.86s) and Linford Christie (9.87s).
With Lemaitre’s penchant for last-ditch heroics, it is apt to compare the Frenchman to nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis – in the sprints, at least. Lewis clocked 9.92s and 9.99s en route to winning the Seoul and Los Angeles Olympic Games. But then again, those were vastly different circumstances than today’s.
Despite the absence of marquee names such as Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay and the African distance specialists, the quality of the competition was superb since the cream of the crop of events like the heptathlon, the throws and the jumps originate from this storied continent. Europe, after all, is the hotbed of track & field.
Even though I’m thousands of kilometers away and every inch an Asian, I became so engrossed at the Euro Championships that I devoured every single video clip and news article that piqued my interest. Thanks to broadband internet, it seemed as if I was actually amidst the crowd, savoring the championship festivities.
I’m just a sucker for underdog stories. The football movies “Rudy” and “The Replacements” are one of my favorites. There’s an infectious magic found in those unexpected victories. It doesn’t have to a gold medal. Once an athlete exceeds his/her expectations and does the improbable, the sheer joy the athlete exudes is indeed priceless.
Being an athlete myself, I know how it feels to chase something distant, to give your all for a single larger-than-life goal.
Perhaps that’s why we love sports so much. Despite its fair share of scandals, sport brings out the best in our being human. Those Herculean feats inspire and sustain, enables us to smile more often amidst the reality that is life – to dream a little bit higher.
Christophe Lemaitre won his first-ever senior title, the European Championships 100m gold, about a month after breaking the 10-second barrier. The Frenchman, after a sluggish start, stormed through the last 40m, leaving the other sprinters on his wake.
Lemaitre stopped the clock at 10.11s. Remarkably, the next 4 athletes clocked identical 10.18s times. An analysis of the photo-finish footage credited Athens 2004 relay gold medalist, the Briton Mark Lewis-Francis, (10.172) with the silver. Martial Mbandjock (10.173) from France got third, while the 2006 Goteborg champion, Francis Obikwelu, (10.174) reigning World Indoor Champion Dwain Chambers (10.178) and Gambian-born Norwegian, Jaysuma Saidy Ndure were awarded 4th, 5th and 6th, respectively.
As an aside, is a dead heat possible in track & field? Can two athletes (or three!) share a single medal?
What a year for the young Frenchman. What a debut on major outdoor championship. So long as he irons out some sprinting specifics (his start, his stability), Lemaitre will surely go places. Although I don’t see him beating the Big Three anytime soon, it’s refreshing to see someone so young do so well at the senior stage.
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