A rain of stars ignited Friday evening the Olympic stadium of Pontaise on the occasion of Athletissima. Find below the reactions of the main international protagonists of the Lausanne meeting.
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“I’m tired (following the Europeans where he won silver). I came here to have fun because I like this discipline and doing it with these guys. Now, there was no timing or tactics in mind, just enjoying the moment once during the season. That feels good. Why do I have the France team jersey? Because we are French and we have to show it! The truth ? They stole my suitcase at the airport, I still haven’t found it. All my sponsorship equipment was in there. So, I took my tricolor jersey.
“I worked really hard to achieve great second parts of the race. I just felt the energy from the audience and felt it was time to attack. Athletissima is a bit like Lea’s (Sprunger) house and therefore a bit mine. I really wanted to put on a good performance for this audience and that’s what I did with this meeting record. It was weird racing here without Lea but I was really happy to see her on the edge of the track. I just wanted to make her proud.”
“It was a pretty good race. Fortunately, the hare pushed for the first 700 meters. The risk was that the pace would slow down when he gave up, so I had to push and it went well. However, I think I might have gone faster. Today was my third time racing here and I really like this track and this atmosphere.”
“Right now, I thank God. I will never forget this race, because it is the first time that I have gone under 13 seconds. I started my season with injuries, but as you can see, the more it progresses the better it gets.
“I had a lot of trouble getting into the race, during the warm-up I was completely out of the way but in the end I was rather successful. However, I think I can do even better. It’s above all the way in which I broke this record that I like, but I know that my last 200m weren’t very good, I got a little tense technically. For the end of the season, I really want to make less than 57”.
“We celebrated the medal quite a bit following the Europeans (note: he won silver in Munich) and I may have accumulated a little fatigue. It will come back very quickly but I think it was maybe a bit early to race today. I may have underestimated the impact of the European Championships.
“I would have taken anything under 19.60, so 19.56 is good for tonight. I might have gone faster but I will still run the 100m in Berlin and the 200m in Zurich, so I have a lot of competitions left in the coming weeks.”
“It was a little windy and the racing space was a little too tight, but in these conditions the performance tonight is not that bad. Personally, I mightn’t have done better. I’m in good shape and in a good mental state, there are some important meetings to come. I will be defending my third consecutive Diamond League title in the finals in Zurich, so there is a lot at stake for me. Of course, I want to end my season as well as possible.”
“It was a beautiful night in Lausanne. I like this atmosphere, it was really nice to compete here. I managed to improve my jumps compared to the last competitions. I live a fantastic season. I still have one more event, who knows what it has in store for me, the world record is still on my mind. I’m looking forward to more jumps and hope to win the Diamond League in Zurich.”
“It’s my first time in Lausanne, I had never raced here. It’s nice to see such an audience today, it’s like in Rabat! The stadium is amazing. I am very happy with my time. It was not easy because it was my first outing following the world championships (where he won the gold medal).