Doha (AFP)
At the bottom of the hole since the start of the World Cup in Doha, France relies on Kevin Mayer, grandfather favorite of the decathlon that starts Wednesday, to avoid a monumental fiasco.
The world record holder (9,126 points) is the last hope of a tricolor delegation very badly in Qatar. With no medals on the clock and past leaders totally through until then, the spectrum of zero points is watching the Blues, as in Helsinki in 1983 and Stuttgart in 1993.
To avoid a terrible turn back, two years after the five podiums won in London and three years after bringing back six charms of the Olympic Games in Rio, the French can bet on Mayer (27), the absolute reference decathlon now erected in Savior of the homeland in danger. The defending champion has no rival to his measure a priori, except the Canadian Damian Warner, best performer of 2019 (8,711 points). It remains to be seen if he will not have been contaminated by the environmental disaster in a group that collects the disappointments for five days.
- "The most complete" -
Above all, he will have to take away the bitter memory of the 2018 European Championships in Berlin and his three missed attempts at length that cost him the title.
"The fear of zero in the decathlete is omnipresent, I make a zero every six years, so normally I'm quiet," he said with humor before the start of the competition.
His coach Bertrand Valcin assures his side that this misstep paradoxically served his colt, who, stung, had also beaten the world record in the wake at the meeting of Talence, September 16, 2018.
"It should not be erased, it must be a useful experience.This allows to have even more rigor not to have small parasites in the head," said the technician.
"In combined events there is always a chance of losing," said American Olympic champion Ashton Eaton to AFP, "but Kevin is so consistent, he has the best chance of winning, who is more complete".
"Berlin: Every decathlete knows this day (...) What makes the difference is the way to bounce back after this failure, and he just broke the world record (laughs)!"
- "Want to be an actor" -
Although he still has this little ball in his stomach before every big championship, all the lights are apparently green for Mayer and even his recurrent pains in the right knee are to be combined with the past.
"I have less pain than last year, I am much more confident than usual compared to this knee," he said.
Mayer, who has put the "hand brake" on training since the meeting in Paris on August 24, and whose last decathlon goes back to that of Talence, is now waiting for one more thing: to get into his ten jobs and let go.
"I know that the adrenaline of the Championships gives me wings," he said, "I know I have the conditions to do very good performances, I want to be an actor. ultra-favorite but in my head it's still a decathlon that will have to go for it.I will give everything.I am not at all rested on my achievements, and I do not tell myself that it will ensure to win. . "
Even if he claims to have "progressed technically" in all the events of the decathlon, except for the unpredictable 1,500 m, there is certainly no question of thinking of improving his historical total of 2018. Only the medal count 'gold.
"I'm already the world record holder and this is a goal that is for the moment in the background, he said, the title is more important." So is the honor of the France team.
© 2019 AFP