The nugget of tricolor athletics Sasha Zhoya retained the title of French champion in the 110m hurdles in a canon time, 13 sec 01, but carried by too favorable a wind, when Pascal Martinot-Lagarde did not climb on the podium, Saturday in Albi.
With 2.3 m/s of wind, beyond the maximum 2 m/s, the time of Zhoya (21 years old) will not appear in the world reports and his personal best remains for the moment at 13 sec 17 dating from the 2022 French Championships.
It nevertheless remains a top-flight performance, like the 110m hurdles final as a whole, since the three medal-winning hurdlers ran in less than 13 sec 2/10ths. Behind Zhoya, Wilhem Belocian finished second in 13 sec 07, and Just Kwaou-Mathey third in 13 sec 19.
Spearhead of the discipline for years, European and world multi-medallist, still European vice-champion in Munich a year ago, Martinot-Lagarde (31) is ejected from the podium despite his best time of the year , in 13 sec 25.
A result that will probably cost him a selection for the Worlds in Budapest in three weeks (August 19-27), since “PML” is the slowest and the lowest ranked of the four French athletes who have passed the chronometric minima making them eligible.