Like every morning, “Libé” offers you its guide to the events to absolutely follow during the day on the purple track of the Stade de France.
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From the French hurdles to the Kenyan 3,000m steeplechase, via the Eastern European discus throw… On this sixth day of the event, Libération delves into stories of heritage.
Zhoya, Belocian and Mohamed ready to wear hurdles in the French tradition
Sure, on TV, you will be entitled to the rebroadcast of Guy Drut’s famous Olympic final, in the 110m hurdles, in 1976 in Montreal. Founder. Perhaps also the world title, in 2005, of Ladji Doucouré, today coach of Sasha Zhoya. We will probably spare you the rebroadcast where the same Doucouré stumbles on the last hurdle while he has the Olympic title within reach in 2004 in Athens… Will we also mention Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, French record holder, multiple medalist in major championships, and who has just retired? Obligatory.
In short, all this to explain that the 110m hurdles, in France, is serious business. A “tradition”. A “specialty”. Like the famous “fox break” that allowed many French hurdlers to beat their most formidable opponents on the line… In any case, this French strength has not faltered in these Olympic Games. While the French team was tripping over itself everywhere in Saint-Denis, who did not fail? Sasha Zhoya, the “nugget” or the “jewel” (as you will hear him say, we bet), 22-year-old Franco-Australian, as much a showman as he is talented, destined to become the new headliner of French athletics. There will also be Wilhem Belocian and Raphaël Mohamed in the semi-finals, who have, themselves, gone through the repechages. 3 French out of 16 competitors in the semi-finals, how many in the final? Barring a catastrophe, the 110m hurdles being an event prone to falls, a place has already been reserved by the American Grant Holloway. Semi-finals, 7:05 p.m.
Ethiopians ready to trample Kenyan tradition
There, there is little chance that someone will try to bait you on TV with an old black and white video from limbo (Joseph Mahmoud, silver in 1984 in Los Angeles, we were never shown that one), there will perhaps be a word anyway to mention the Frenchman Bouabdellah Tahri, world bronze medalist (in 2009) and especially the first European to compete with the Kenyans, before Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad, triple Olympic medalist. But we would rather bet on a little rewatch of the last round of Alice Finot’s final to boost general morale.
Because on the men’s side, it didn’t work out for the Blues. There were three qualified and none managed to get past the playoffs, not even the European champion, Alexis Miellet, who said he was “tired”: “Since May, I’ve been working hard to qualify [aux JO]so the season has been long and the form is starting to nose-dive. Not easy against the Kenyans who are doing their third race of the year.” The Kenyans, in fact, arrived in force in Paris. The stakes are crucial for them: defending the last fortress that has not given in to the assaults of Ethiopia in the middle distance. There will be three of them in the final, against three Ethiopians (including the world record holder, Lamecha Girma) determined to win their first world medal in this discipline. Final, 9:40 p.m.
On the disc, Mykolas Alekna in the direct line of the family tradition
So there, nothing, zero reels to pull from the archives to try to celebrate a French discus thrower. The discus is not a French specialty – and even less so among the men, who do not have a spearhead like Mélina Robert-Michon to pull the discipline upwards. In this case, the tradition is rather on the side of Eastern Europe, and in the very specific case that will concern us, within the Lithuanian Alekna family: the first of the qualifiers for the final, Mykolas Alekna, is in fact the son of Virgilius Alekna, Olympic discus champion in 2000 and 2004. The offspring would therefore see himself repeating his father’s feat, twenty years after him. And it doesn’t seem crazy, since he has just set a new world record (74.35 m), knocking East German Jürgen Schult, who had held it since 1986, off the shelves. Final, 8:25 p.m.
