Doha (AFP)

Renaud Lavillenie (pole), Jimmy Vicaut (100m) and Rénelle Lamote (800m) unable to qualify for the final, Alexandra Tavernier only sixth at the hammer: the second day of the World Cup in Doha was catastrophic for the French, Saturday.

The Blues had certainly landed without certainty in Qatar after a season without relief for most of their leaders but it was difficult to imagine such a fiasco after only 48 hours of competition. At this rate, the balance is likely to be hungry, two years after the 5 medals collected in London.

The main sensation of this nightmarish evening came from the pole, with the untimely exit of Renaud Lavillenie. The world record holder (6.16m) has never managed this year to find his best level, far from the three men over 6m, the Swede Armand Duplantis, Pole Pole Lisek and the American Sam Kendricks. But such a poor performance is rare on the part of the one who has collected the medals in more than ten years of career.

It's very simple: the Clermontois had never failed at the doors of the final in a big open-air championship. In the dullness of Doha, however, he was unable to clear a bar at 5.70 m, far from its usual standards.

- The beginning of the end ? -

While a new generation is coming to the fore, we have to face the facts: Lavillenie, at age 33, is starting to see its results curve slowly but surely, even though the Olympic champion (2012) has swept this thesis with the back of the hand, already making an appointment in 2020.

"I'm going to laugh at reading the press tomorrow," he said, "but nobody has the right to say what I have to do and it's already over." It's been 10 years since I made 18 medals and I miss a competition and we say it's over, do not get mad at people, I've always managed to bounce back and take control of myself. "

There will still be a Lavillenie in the final of the pole Tuesday with Valentin (28 years). But despite his personal joy, the youngest could not hide his emotion, he who dreamed so much to meet Tuesday among the lucky ones with his big brother.

"My heart is rocking," he said in tears, "I'm coming back from so far away (a serious ankle injury, ed) and I owe him a lot, the surgeons said that I will never be able to recover and resort. it's a delirium, it's okay to go to the finals, but only one person is missing and everything is depopulated. "

- 'Zero point' -

Alexandra Tavernier was the other big disappointment tricolor side. The European Vice Hammer Champion (2018) was a serious medal but missed out on her competition.

Four years after the bronze medal at the Beijing World Championships, there was a very good shot in the absence of the two-time Olympic champion and four-time world gold medalist Anita Wlodarczyk, operated on her left knee.

But the holder of the record of France (74.84 m) remained stuck with 73.33 m, the gold returning to the American DeAnna Price (77.54 m).

"I have zero points everywhere," she lamented, "I was a super spectator, at no time did my heart beat, I did not feel stressed, I stayed on my feet without anything. when I was 76m today, I do not care if I'm sixth, I wanted to be world champion, it's a mega slap because usually I'm the one who knocks and not the reverse. "

The same lament came out of the mouth of the unfortunate Jimmy Vicaut, ejected from the semifinals of the 100 m (10 sec 16). "I really messed up my race," explained the European record holder (9 sec 86).

This is the first time in 10 years that there has been no French in the world final on the straight, won by the American Christian Coleman (9 sec 76), but the outcome was predictable for a sprinter who did not go faster this season than 10 sec 02.

This dark picture was completed by Rénelle Lamote (800 m) and Ludvy Vaillant (400 m hurdles), unable to reach the final. An evening really to forget for the Blues.

© 2019 AFP