Mélina Robert-Michon, who is playing her tenth World Championships in Athletics at the age of 44, qualified for her ninth world final in the discus throw on Sunday in Budapest. A first throw at 61.82m, which places her in eleventh place in qualifying, finally proved enough to secure a place among the twelve finalists.
In Budapest, Robert-Michon celebrates a quarter of a century in the French team, since his first selection for the 1998 European Championships, already in the Hungarian capital. “It was not easy, but the essential is there. My warm-up was complicated, I couldn’t get a throw out. I was very tense, I couldn’t find my bearings, it was a very tough competition. Now I’m putting everything back to zero for the final, I’m going to try to adjust”.
The 2016 Olympic vice-champion and double world medalist (2013 and 2017), who already knows that she does not intend to end her career after the Paris Olympics next summer, will have to throw much further in the final on Monday evening if she wants to hope to get closer to the podium. His best performance of the season is a throw of 65.49m at the end of May in Montreuil.
Over 400m hurdles, the two Frenchmen Ludvy Vaillant (48”27) and Wilfried Happio (48”63) easily passed the qualifications, Happio even allowing himself to beat the Norwegian Olympic champion Karsten Warholm. They meet Monday in the semi-finals. Amandine Brossier, 4th the day before the mixed 4x400m relay, stopped in the 400m series.
