Saint-Étienne (AFP)

Races and competitions postponed, low lap times on a wet track: the rain heavily disrupted Saturday the French Athletics Championships in Saint-Etienne, pushing including Jimmy Vicaut to withdraw for the final of the 100 m, as a precaution.

It was a real deluge that came down on the track of Henri-Lux stadium in the middle of the afternoon, coming to disrupt the beautiful scheduling of the competition. The stifling heat of previous days suddenly replaced a black sky pouring water into the air, causing the spectators in one of the two side stands, uncovered, to flee and damage the operation of the time display board.

As a result of bad weather: the organizers had no choice but to simply cancel the qualifications of the pole and the men's disc as well as those of the ladies' height, all competitors having access to the finals scheduled the next day, where a milder weather should be back.

The men's pole, men's triple jump and men's finals, the semi-finals of the men's 100m hurdles, and the men's and women's men's qualifications were postponed to Sunday, which looks like a busy day.

- No final for Vicaut -

The rain did not stop the other races planned to fight but for Jimmy Vicaut, it was out of the question to take any risk at two months of the World (September 27 - October 6 in Doha). The European co-recorder in the 100m (9 sec 86), who won a little earlier in the semifinals under a heavy downpour (10 sec 43), has decided, in agreement with his coach Dimitri Demonière , to abstain, leaving the national title of the 100 m to Amaury Golitin (10 sec 45).

"It's very cold and I do not want to take any chances, I will not be able to express myself properly, so it's better like that, I'm disgusted but I do not want to hurt myself to please people, "he said 24 hours after signing his best time of the year on the straight (10 sec 02), synonymous with" required performance level "for Doha.

Rénelle Lamote, winner of her 800m semi-final (2m07sec.95s), would also have preferred a more favorable weather for her first race in 2019.

"This time changes things for me, explained the double vice-champion of Europe.I was cold in the call room.I was not very smart, it was so hot in Paris by leaving that I only took shorts so I was on the starting line with my coach's sweatshirt, it was not easy, I had to adapt, but it's been so long since I'm waiting for my return I was happy to run. "

- Bump likes rain -

Finally, one of the few to have appreciated this sudden freshness after several days of heat wave was Pierre-Ambroise Bosse. The 800m world champion seemed exhausted by the heat after his semifinal success on Friday. Saturday, he won his 5th national gold medal (1 min 42 sec 53) perfectly resisting the return of the young Gabriel Tual (21 years).

"Look at me and see how I was yesterday, reacted PAB.This is the difference.The 800m runners, we prefer this temperature.It was not bad as race, I tried to manage my effort.I do not I did not think I had to leave so hard but they did not let me do it, I'm a bit limited because I lack tactical training, but competition is part of training, that's why I came. "

The decathletes also enjoyed this weather worthy of a month of November. After the calvary of 1,500 m, their last test, they threw themselves naked torso in a huge puddle on the lawn. We have fun as we can ...

© 2019 AFP