After a crazy evening on Saturday – marked by the title of the now best world performer in the 100m hurdles of Cyréna Samba-Mayela and the silver medal of the sparkling Auriana Lazraq-Khlass in the heptathlon, the French athletics team further sublimated itself by winning 4 new medals, two gold with Alice Finot (3,000 m steeplechase) and Gabriel Tual (800 m) and two bronze, not necessarily expected, with Ilionis Guillaume (triple jump) and Agathe Guillemot ( 1500m).
The smile is huge. Gabriel Tual won his first European 800m champion title at the age of 26 (in 1’44”87), less than two months before the Paris Olympic Games. In boss mode, the Frenchman knew how to manage his effort, defeating his opponents in the final straight.
“We felt a certain pressure before the start, everyone was tense, I tried to stay focused on what I could control,” says Gabriel Tual. I did like I did in the semi-final, I managed the race properly, it was crazy. In the last 150m, I think I was flying, it’s incredible, it’s magical. »
Revealed at the Tokyo Olympics, where he took 7th place in the 800m final for his first major international senior competition, the Frenchman, 6th at the Eugene Worlds in 2022, reached a new milestone in Rome.
“I’ve been waiting for it for a few years,” he smiles. We train so hard, we vomit on the track, sometimes we can’t walk anymore. It feels so good to end up with the most beautiful medal around your neck. Before the Olympics, it’s already a good warm-up, and above all, it builds confidence. We’ll see what happens, we have to stay focused. It’s super fun, it’s crazy, but we must not forget that the objective is Paris. You shouldn’t stay too high. »
A performance quickly praised, from a distance, by his girlfriend, Margot Chevrier. “So proud of Gab, and so touched not to experience it there… It’s so beautiful and so hard at the same time,” posted the pole vaulter, who remained in France in the hope of returning to the forefront, after his serious injury a few months ago.
So proud of Gab ❤️🩹 and so touched not to experience it there… it’s so beautiful and so hard at the same time
— Margot Chevrier (@margot_chevrier) June 9, 2024
Alice Finot thought she too could celebrate her first international gold medal. With her fist raised, then her arms stretched towards the sky, Alice Finot never stopped hopping on the blue track of Rome. At 33, the vice European indoor champion in 2021 (from her first selection for the French team), crossed the finish line of the 3,000m steeplechase like a boss, becoming the first French European champion of the specialty…
Before experiencing long minutes of anguish. While she was fully enjoying her new status, the Frenchwoman, revealed late after long engineering studies, was first disqualified for having put one foot on the line, off the track, after the passage of the river. Before being reclassified, after the call from the French camp. In the process, the German team filed a new appeal which was unsuccessful. At 12:23 a.m. Alice Finot was finally officially crowned.
In the meantime, two French women took advantage of this funny evening to win their first international medal. Combative, Agathe Guillemot threw her last efforts into the final straight of her 1,500m to win bronze in 4′5′’69.
Ilionis Guillaume, for her part, created a surprise in the triple jump. Qualified in 8th position, she jumped to 14.43 m on her 6th and final attempt, finishing in 3rd place in a final won by the Spaniard Ana Peleteiro Compaoré, the wife of the Frenchman Benjamin Compaoré.
