Doha (AFP)

Finally! Bredouille and badly in point until then, the team of France has suddenly found colors by the grace of Quentin Bigot (2nd hammer) and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde (3rd in the 110 m hurdles), which collected Wednesday the two first medals of the Blues at the World Cup in Doha.

It was thus necessary to wait 6 days of competition to see the Tricolores open their counter. The specter of the zero point that was waiting for them after the successive disappointments of their leaders has therefore moved away for good and the French will not suffer the humiliation of returning home without any charm, as in 1983 (Helsinki) and 1993 ( Stuttgart). A breath of fresh air for a country that had two excellent results at the 2016 Olympic Games (6 podiums) and the 2017 World Championships (5) and especially wanted to avoid a terrible step back.

While waiting for the world record holder Kevin Mayer, 3rd in the decathlon at the end of the first five events (4483 points), the rescue came first from Bigot (78.19m), the runner-up of the Polish monster Pawel Fajdek (80, 50m), now quadruple winner at the Worlds.

For Lorrain, it is a rehabilitation in due form. Banned for two years after a positive test for an anabolic in 2014 at only 21 years old, Bigot lived the stigma and loneliness of the banished while he was one of the most confident of French athletics after a title European junior in 2011.

Pierre-Jean Vazel's protege did not forget the time when he was eating alone at the athletes' restaurant when he returned to the Blues. But the solid guy (1.77 m, 90 kg), civil train driver, knew how to rebuild himself by blossoming professionally in his great passion.

- Revenge -

At the podium in London 2017 at the World Championships, he had a huge disappointment in 2018 by failing in qualifying at the Euro Berlin where he had arrived physically diminished. But this season, the time for revenge has finally come for those who would like to engage in anti-doping prevention by using their experience.

If Bigot's performance was somewhat unexpected, that of Pascal Martinot-Lagarde was much less. Just minutes after the Hayange pitcher, the hurdler has added a second medal in the trash of France at the end of a race to the snatch which he has the secret and won by the new US nugget on hedges Grant Holloway (13 sec 10). If the great favorite Omar McLeod, Olympic and world champion, has planted in large widths (disqualified), Martinot-Lagarde on the contrary perfectly managed to hold his rank, unlike many of his teammates, so disappointing in Qatar.

European gold medalist in Berlin in 2018, PML, 3rd in 13 sec 18, proved again that he was a man of the big leagues by being invited among the three best specialists of the planet just behind the Russian Sergey Shubenkov ( 2nd in 13 sec 15). There was heavy in the final but the record holder of France (12 sec 95) was in warrior mode.

Having achieved his best time since September 2016 in the semi-finals (13 sec 12), Martinot-Lagarde (28 years), despite a very bad start, has never let go to snatch his first world podium. The Frenchman, however, waited a few seconds before having confirmation of his presence on the box and explode with joy by falling into the arms of Shubenkov, world champion 2015, the one he had barely grilled on the line at Berlin last year. He could not help but shed big tears after having delivered a huge fight. Epilogue of an evening finally perfect for the Blues.

© 2019 AFP