Despite five entries in the finals on Monday, for the second day of the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris, the French failed to snag a medal.
The satisfaction of the day came from Timothée Adolphe and Trésor Makunda who qualified for the semi-finals of the 400m T11.
It’s a disappointing 5th place, but above all frustrating for the sprinter Dimitri Jozwicki, entered in the T38 category.
The Frenchman, with a time of 11sec and 19/100, was “split to 1/1000th of a second” and just missed out on 4th place, synonymous with a quota for the Paralympic Games in Paris 2024.
“I don’t know if we can’t make a claim, to at least check, it doesn’t cost anything because it’s a thousandth that separates from a quota, it’s not nothing,” declared Jozwicki who also “regretted ( s)a performance”.
“I know what I can do (…) I probably have better legs than that,” he admitted a few minutes after the final won by American Jaydin Blackwell.
At the same time in the evening session, Vitolio Kavakava, who was taking part in his world debut, also finished 5th in the javelin throw (F57).
No medal either in the 5000m T54 in a wheelchair where Julien Casoli, 41, and Thibault Daurat, 20, finished 6th and 8th respectively.
A “complicated” final for Casoli who “suffered from the heat” in a “yoyo race” where all the competitors went blow for blow.
Thibault Daurat, for his first Worlds, prefers to retain the satisfaction of a “final at (his) age”.
The event was dominated head and shoulders by the Swiss giant Marcel Hug, far too strong for the competition and who finished in 9 min 35 sec and 78/100, almost a lap ahead of the rest. of his opponents.
“I felt very good, especially when I broke away from the rest of the group,” admitted the seven-time Paralympic champion in Olympian calm.
Earlier in the day, Trésor Makunda and Timothée Adolphe qualified for the semi-finals of the 400m category T11, thanks to their best times of the season (51sec 77/100 and 51 sec 63/100) to the great satisfaction of Makunda , who wanted to show “that we were not afraid”.
“We will do everything to be two French in the final, no one is above anyone,” he continued before Tuesday’s series.
The morning was much less beautiful for Typhaine Soldé, 21, last in the long jump category T64, which notably includes sportswomen with one or both legs amputated.
The event was won by Dutchwoman Fleur Jong, who won her first world title, the only one missing from her list.
“I’m a complete champion now, that’s historic!” she rejoiced.
Among the other favorites of the day, New Zealander Lisa Adams, already Paralympic champion in the F37 category in shot put, a reference to athletes with movement difficulties on one side of the body, also gleaned gold.
Trained by her sister, Valérie Adams, another big name in the discipline, Lisa was able to count in Paris on the support of another member of the family: her brother Steven Adams, pivot of the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA.
