Without two of its locomotives, Kevin Mayer, injured in the Achilles tendon, and Renaud Lavillenie, out of form, the small tricolor delegation (10 athletes) could fear the worst in Serbia after the two bitter failures suffered at the World Championships of Doha in 2019 (2 medals) and at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 (1).

But with two podiums and a 4th place for Valentin Lavillenie in the pole vault (with a personal best in 5.85m), the Blues limit the damage, although the final balance sheet is worse than the three charms (including two gold) brought back from Birmingham in 2018.

In sporting crisis and weakened by a governance in reconstruction after the successive departures last year of the national technical director Patrice Gergès, of the interim DTN Anne Barrois then of the performance director Florian Rousseau, the French Federation (FFA) can breathe before the two big summer deadlines, the World Championships in Eugene (July 15-24) and the Euro in Munich (August 15-21) which will draw up the true inventory of the discipline, two years from the Paris Games.

Even if the Indoor Worlds remain a secondary competition, France has discovered a new talent with the gold won by Cyréna Samba-Mayela, aged only 21 and capable of being there in 2024. Teddy Tamgho's protege , hampered last season by injuries, took the opportunity to beat in 7 sec 78 the French record of Linda Ferga (7 sec 82), which dated from 2004.

With Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, the Blues have a safe bet, always on time when needed and when his body leaves him alone.

If Wilhem Belocian, the other Frenchman expected in the final a year after European indoor gold, cracked (8th), PML still did PML in Belgrade, baring his fangs to climb, as a good indoor specialist, to the fourth time on a world podium (silver in 2014, 2016, 2022, bronze in 2012), behind the untouchable American Grant Holloway.

Pascal Martinot-Lagarde in silver on the 60m podium at the Belgrade Worlds, March 20, 2022 pedja milosavljevic AFP

"Satisfactory"

What to inflate a little more a prize list which has little equivalent in France, with in particular a title of European champion in the 110 m hurdles and a 3rd place at the Worlds in 2019.

"I'm 30 years old and I continue to win medals, I'm really happy, he explained. We always want to win gold but when we run a semi-final with someone who equals the record for world next door (Holloway, editor's note), we can be satisfied with a silver medal. It was experience that played a part. I did the right race at the right time."

"The Cyréna Samba-Mayela final, I loved it crazy, he added. I saw myself again in my younger years. She showed that she was a great champion. We can say that France is a great nation of hedgerows".

Pascal Martinot-Lagarde 2nd in the 60m hurdles at the Belgrade Worlds, March 20, 2022 Pedja Milosavljevic AFP

The evils that have plagued the FFA for several months have not disappeared by magic in the space of three days.

Saturday, Christophe Lemaitre thus had very harsh words against the FFA, deploring to AFP the lack of "human" in the management of the high level.

"I have the impression that at the federation there is not a serene and ideal atmosphere for high performance work, he criticized. I do not have the impression that there is have a questioning after the Olympics. We are preparing for the Paris Games but too late."

But for Romain Barras, the new performance director of the FFA, there is hope after this weekend in Serbia.

“The overall results are very satisfactory, he welcomed. We had athletes who managed to respond present on D-Day. I hope that this will trigger a dynamic. We have a great generation coming up, with athletes who, like Cyréna Samba-Mayela, are part of the Ambition 2024 system. This shows others that it is possible."

© 2022 AFP