Monaco (AFP)

"It's like I'm 18!" With nine more years, the 800m world champion, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse, says he is brand new and ready for the performance on Friday in Monaco, after several years of pain and a charged extra-sporting news.

"I'm happy because I found myself and I know I'm going to surprise myself in competition My body is healthy again, it's like I was 18 again", rejoices, smiling, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse with AFP, on the eve of the Diamond League meeting.

"I'm happy to go to training in the morning, to put my sneakers, to move my ass," he says, released since January recurrent pains due to fibrosis on the upper hamstrings since 2014.

"So I'm getting better at training necessarily, I'm not disgusted to train, which was not the case in recent years."

The bronze medalist at the Berlin Euro in August has also been rid of a long feuilleton court since a violent brawl on the parking lot of Gujan-Mestras casino in August 2017 with a former amateur rugby player.

He was sentenced on May 28 to 1,000 euros fine by the Criminal Court of Bordeaux for "violence with use or threat of a weapon, in this case a bottle of beer". The other protagonist was sentenced to 8 months of suspended sentence for "drunken violence resulting in an ITT (temporary inability to work, ed) of 18 days".

"It's over!" A stamp, "No more nobody says to me" so that's where your stuff is? + It's a little less weight, I can not deny it. "

- "The 800m is poker" -

In Monaco, a race traditionally very fast, he made a late comeback, without having the pressure of qualification for the Worlds of Doha (27 September - 6 October), where his place is assured as title holder.

Returning from a foot injury that occurred at the end of March in Agadir (Morocco), he refined his preparation in Barcelona from the end of May to the beginning of June.

"I'm 80% fit, but it's already very good, it's a form that will allow me to beat tomorrow at the regular pace, I did a 800m training last week. and it was not bad, "he slips, mysterious.

Pierre-Ambroise Bosse looks ambitious again just a few months before the World Cup and the Tokyo Games in 2020 after having experienced happiness and disillusionment during the major championships played in his career (4th of the Rio Games, twice 3rd of the European Championships) .

Above all, Bosse became world champion to everyone's surprise on August 8, 2017 in London thanks to an attack 600m from the finish, and hopes to have made a force of his sleight of hand.

"My opponents say that at any moment I can make a shot, they see me irregular, which makes me unpredictable, therefore more dangerous," he says.

"It's a tactical weapon that helps me, the 800m is poker: bluffing, 70% know-how and 30% luck, do not lie," he says. .

It's up to him to prove it Friday in Monaco.

© 2019 AFP