FRESH OUT of Annecy, France, Christophe Lemaitre last night won the heavyweight title of fastest man in Europe – despite being, comparatively, something of a lightweight. Awesome stuff from the youngster just turned 20, and who recently become the first so-called white man to run the 100 metres in under 10 seconds.
Lemaitre clocked 10.11 here after a shaky start, but coolly came through to win by a length, with a photo-finish required to separate the next four – who dipped across the finish in a perfect parallel line, all in 10.18 seconds.
In the end Britain’s Mark Lewis Francis was awarded the silver, Martial Mbandjock of France the bronze, leaving the real heavyweight, Dwain Chambers, a disappointed fourth.
“In my eyes, sprinting has never been a matter of skin colour,” says Lemaitre – although if he looked behind he’d have seen four so-called black men chasing him down.
The 32-year-old Chambers had beaten Lemaitre earlier in the season and was slightly favoured, but perhaps his age has now caught up with him. Chambers did win this title eight years ago, but was later stripped of it after being caught – and later admitting to – using some good old fashioned anabolic steroids, courtesy of the infamous Victor Conte.
Lemaitre has declared for this morning’s 200 metres heats, which of course includes Ireland’s Paul Hession, although it remains to be seen if he’ll start.
The French press have been reporting that Lemaitre has been nursing an abductor strain, and although that didn’t slow him down over the 100 metres, it might inhibit him on the bends. Truth is, if he doesn’t start then Hession’s medal hopes will improve considerably.
From 100 metres to the 10,000 metres, where Elvan Abeylegesse from Turkey, via Ethiopia, ran away from the small field to win the gold medal in 31:10.23.
Spain’s big hopes of a medal disappeared early on, their best finisher being Jacqueline Martin in 12th, so they’re still searching for their first prize on the track.
The expectation is they’ll definitely win a medal in the men’s 5,000 metres, mostly likely through defending champion Jesus Espana, who is drawn in the second of this evening’s semi-finals alongside Ireland’s Mark Christie.
Going in the first semi-final is Alistair Cragg, who is ranked eighth in Europe this season with his 13:21.66. If he can regain his form of five years ago, Cragg is a potential medallist, but naturally he’ll need to get into the final first and unfortunately his recent championship record suggests there’s no guarantee that he will.
