In an Olympic stadium a little calmer but above all more moist than the day before, the finalists of the 110m hurdles were presented to the sound of "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones, to believe that the DJ knows Pascal Martinot-Lagarde well.

Because the 30-year-old hurdler, sure of his strength, experienced, is a real devil ready to come out of his box at the right time, always in the final, despite the injuries that mark his career, and have further rotten his start to the season.

For the twelfth time in 18 major competitions in his career (16 finals), Martinot-Lagarde managed to get on the podium, obviously setting the best time of his season (13.14), he who was defending champion, in addition to have already won 5 world medals (4 indoors).

"I was able to do some excellent weeks of training after the Worlds, it's been a long time. Lately I've always had to adapt to this or that injury. I want to count on my ability to respond on D-Day", had notified PML a few days ago.

And he had been right.

As usual, this medal machine attempted its formidable "break" on the line and almost overtook the Spaniard Asier Martinez, who had taken the upper hand, but only kept a thousandth of a second lead after examination. of the photofinish.

Four medals for France

Quite in contrast to Martinot-Lagarde, statue of a motionless commander behind his half-Robocop half-Terminator sunglasses, Just Kwaou-Mathey embellished his presentation in front of the public with several dance steps and a huge smile.

Two attitudes for two different generations, while Kwaou-Mathey, training comrade in Poitiers of sprint nugget Jeff Erius, achieved the feat of climbing the podium for his first international final at 22, after two years of an express progression.

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In 13 sec 33, this skinny athlete was able to resist the return of the Swiss Jason Joseph (13.35), while Sasha Zhoya, for his first final too, fell at the end of the race for an anecdotal time (8th in 16 sec 51) .

Footballer in his youth in Evreux, Kwaou-Mathey shone in Munich, in the city of his great friend Dayot Upamecano, star of the round ball with the Blues and Bayern.

After two sluggish days marked by the early abandonment of decathlete Kevin Mayer, the Blues had their first good evening the day after the bronze medal snatched at the end of the night - and appeals - by the long jumper Jules Pommery.

In addition to the hurdlers, Jean-Marc Pontvianne also distinguished himself for a great first with the triple jump bronze at the age of 28, validating only one jump (16.94 m).

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Pontvianne is part of the tradition of the French "triple", in the wake of his co-trainer Teddy Tamgho, ahead of the 5th tricolor medalist at the Euro after Serge Hélan in 1994 (2nd), Tamgho in 2010 (3rd), Benjamin Compaoré and Yoann Rapinier (1st and 3rd) in 2014.

© 2022 AFP