2023-08-25 10:55:43
The scenario dreaded by all French athletics unfortunately took place this Friday. The leader of the French team Kevin Mayer, reigning world champion, abandoned the decathlon after only two events, at the 2023 world athletics championships in Budapest. The decathlon world record holder, hit in the left Achilles tendon, had warned that he would not take any risks one year before the Paris Olympics. He therefore stops before the shot put, the third of the ten events. France’s record in Hungary remains stuck at zero medals and its main chance to soften this record has just vanished.
In 2022 at the Worlds in Eugene (Oregon), Kevin Mayer had brought back the only medal of the Blues. The double Olympic silver medalist (2016 and 2021), therefore saw a new disillusion, after his abandonment in the middle of the decathlon in Doha, during the 2019 Worlds. In August 2022, at the Munich Euro, he had similarly abandoned , just after the 100 m, a few weeks after his victory in Eugene.
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He was only 16th after two events in Budapest
After running the 100m in 10”79 this Friday, Kevin Mayer jumped in length to 7.25m, two performances far from his best level, and performed with his face closed. In the combined classification, he was then 16th, far from his main rivals. “There are too many risks. We stay on our line of conduct: the main deadline is in eleven months. We are going to adjust next season to qualify for the Olympics. He did it before Rio, he did it before Tokyo, there is no reason for that to be a problem, ”said his coach Alexandre Bonacorsi on Friday.
In Budapest, Kevin Mayer (31) explained that his left Achilles tendon had been hurting him for two weeks and a 400 meter training session. “It can be seen that it hurts, don’t get yourself into trouble,” Alexandre Bonacorsi told him this Friday morning, after his three tries at length. Tuesday, at a press conference, the person concerned had indicated that he did not want to take any risks with his health before the Paris Olympics.
Few medal hopes by Sunday
“I have the experience of a big injury in Doha [fissure au tendon d’Achille gauche et déchirure lors des Mondiaux 2019], where I had pushed too much. I had taken until February to start running again. I never want it to happen to me before Paris, ”he said. “Kéké” will therefore don his superhero cape to once again save a French team in distress. The Blues, having become a small nation in the world hierarchy, were not aiming for a raid in the Hungarian capital, but they hoped for a rise in power and some rays of sunshine, a year from treading the purple tartan of the Stade de France in Saint- Dennis.
Alas, they only have three “finalist” places (Top 8) for the moment after six days of competition. Very few athletes took advantage of Budapest’s perfect conditions to improve their record, or even achieve their best performance of the season. Some slim hopes remain with Alice Finot (in the 3,000m steeplechase final on Sunday), the half-cross country skier Rénelle Lamote (in the 800m half this Friday), and the relays, mainly the men’s 4x100m, which has been particularly worked on for two years. But you will have understood, we are heading straight for a worrying zero point one year from the Paris Olympics.
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