Cross-country skier Alice Finot qualified in style for the 3000m steeplechase final at the World Championships in Eugene (Oregon) by cutting more than five seconds from her French record on Saturday.
Coming to the track and to the high level late, Finot, who is playing his very first Worlds, dominated his series in 9 min 14 sec 34, a little more than five seconds faster than in Stockholm at the end of June. What to brandish the point at the crossing of the finish line. In the Swedish capital, the 31-year-old Frenchwoman had already bettered her own national benchmark set at the end of May by almost two seconds.
The final is scheduled for Wednesday evening (04:45 in the night from Wednesday to Thursday French time). For his first international championships in 2021, Finot won European indoor silver in the 3000m in Torun (Poland).
The French pass over 110m hurdles
The three Frenchmen engaged in the 110m hurdles, Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, Sasha Zhoya and Just Kwaou-Mathey, made it through the playoffs at the World Championships in Athletics in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday morning.
Zhoya, the young nugget of French athletics with dizzying progress, qualified in 13 sec 48 by taking third place in his series, like Kwaou-Mathey, him in 13 sec 32, five hundredths of his personal best . Martinot-Lagarde, only fifth in his series in 13 sec 49, validated his place in the semi-finals on time.
The first four in each series and the next four best times qualified for the semi-finals scheduled for Sunday as the final (2:05 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. in the night from Sunday to Monday French time).
The best time was achieved by the American Grant Holloway, outgoing world champion and Olympic silver medalist last summer in Tokyo, in 13 sec 14, ahead of the reigning Olympic champion, the Jamaican Hansle Parchment (13.17). The American Devon Allen, who had approached four hundredths of the world record in mid-June (12.84 against 12.80), ran him in 13 sec 47 to win his series.
In the hammer throw, Bigot at the foot of the podium
Poland’s Pawel Fajdek won his fifth straight hammer throw world title on Saturday in Eugene, Oregon, Frenchman Quentin Bigot finishing at the foot of the podium (80.24 m).
With a throw of 81.98m, the world’s best performance of the season, Fajdek beat fellow Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki (81.03m) and Norwegian Olympic vice-champion Eivind Henriksen (80.87m). The three throwers thus reproduce the Olympic podium in Tokyo last summer, in a different order (Fajdek had finished 3rd).
Fifth in Japan, Bigot (29) won a place in Eugene with a throw of 80.24m, the second best contest of his career, but could not find the world podium as in Doha in 2019 (2nd).
Hurdler Wilfried Happio qualified for the semi-finals of the 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene (Oregon) this Saturday, finishing 3rd in his series in 49 sec 60 on Saturday. Crowned French champion at the end of June after being hit in the face, Happio has an appointment on Sunday for the next round.
The French in the running on Sunday
The French in the running on the third day of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene (United States) on Sunday (in French time):
(3:15 p.m.) Men’s Marathon: Hassan Chahdi
(10:00 p.m.) Men’s 10,000m final: Jimmy Gressier
(02h05 and 04h30 Monday) Semi-finals and final of the men’s 110m hurdles: Just Kwaou-Mathey, Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, Sasha Zhoya qualified for the semi-finals
(02h25) Women’s pole vault final: Ninon Chapelle and Margot Chevrier
(03h03) Men’s 400m hurdles semi-finals: according to the results of the heats on Saturday, Wilfried Happio
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