If everything goes as planned, Audrey Leduc could set foot on the purple track at the Stade de France during eight of the first nine days of athletics competitions at the Paris Olympic Games next August.
“I hadn’t even looked!” » giggled the sprinter from Gatineau, reached by telephone Monday, three days after having accomplished (another) feat at the Edwin Moses Legends meeting, in Atlanta.
Leduc continued his formidable rise by setting a second national record and achieving a second Olympic qualifying standard in just over a month.
After excelling in the 100m in April, the 25-year-old athlete did all she could in the 200m, covering the distance in 22.36 s. She thus beat the 2017 mark of her relay teammate Crystal Emmanuel by 14 hundredths, a gap at this level of competition.
Surprise ? ” Yes. My goal was just to make it within 22. In the end, something else appeared. I just wanted to go running. I didn’t have a time goal as such. »
However, the evening began with a small hitch for the Quebecer, who lined up in the 100m 40 minutes earlier. As she prepared to settle into the block, an interview was taking place with one of the “legends” invited to the competition named in honor of Edwin Moses, Olympic champion in the 400m hurdles in Montreal in 1976 and in Los Angeles in 1984.
Leduc expected the exchange broadcast over the loudspeakers to end before the runners were called to the starting line, which was not the case. A little “destabilized” by this unusual scenario, she did not take off to her liking.
The national record holder of 10.96 seconds was unable to close the gap, crossing the line in fourth place in 11.17 seconds, her third time ever.
“It wasn’t the best race, but it wasn’t dramatic. The goal was to apply what had gone a little less well in the 100 meters, to change it, and to execute what I had to do in the 200. It was a continuity. »
” We are going to go there ! »
The only participant in the 100m to double with the 200m, Leduc did not really fear a sequence for which she said she was amply prepared. Second coming out of the curve, she started the straight half a stride behind her neighbor, Tamara Davis.
“I competed,” Leduc said. I saw the other girl who was there, I said: OK, well, let’s go! »
Neck to neck, Leduc won at the last minute, cutting the line three hundredths before the 21-year-old American, finalist in the 100m and gold medalist in the relay at the last World Championships. Even the director – or cameraman – was fooled into showing a close-up of Davis.
Was it hard? “Surprisingly, no,” assured the Canadian. It was good. It wasn’t that hard physically. »
Her time of 22.36 seconds therefore surprised her – the entry criterion for Paris is 22.57 seconds – but it was not the first thing that interested her at the time, while she was folded to catch his breath (the director quickly redeemed himself). Above all, she wanted to know the strength of the wind. A month earlier, in Louisiana, his time of 22.77 s had not been approved because the wind speed exceeded the maximum normal of 2 m/s (+3 m/s).
It was finally the interviewer at the side of the track who confirmed the legality of her time by telling her that she had just achieved a Canadian record. In all honesty, the winner admitted that it wasn’t in her plans before starting…
“I wasn’t even thinking about setting a Canadian record in the 100 meters, let alone the 200 meters! “, she laughed on Monday.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Audrey Leduc in training
It must be said that before this race, it was at 87e rank of the best Canadian women in history in the 200m… a second and a quarter from the time which today allows her to take first place.
Despite this breathtaking progression, Audrey Leduc takes things as they come. One thing is certain, it provides its new agent with solid sales arguments, she who does not currently have any equipment sponsor.
“There are discussions, but we don’t know if it will necessarily happen before or after the Games, or never… or maybe one day,” she evacuated, as if it were the least of his worries.
Three events in Paris?
For now, she is still hoping for an invitation to the New York Grand Prix, where some of the best sprinters are expected to line up on Sunday, including five-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah. The 31-year-old Jamaican will want to bounce back after her last place at the Prefontaine classic on May 25.
From June 26 to 30, the pride of the Rouge et Or of Laval University will be able to formalize its selection in the 100m and 200m as part of the Montreal Olympic Trials. Her place in the 4 x 100 m, which she helped qualify for on May 5 in the Bahamas, is practically assured. With the heats and semi-finals, she could be called upon to race eight days out of nine in the City of Lights.
“The goal is not to do as much as possible, but there are some who do decathlon,” she noted. We are therefore able to do three tests. »
Otherwise, Audrey Leduc didn’t really “celebrate” her historic time on Friday evening, to use the interviewer’s words to which she didn’t really know what to answer…
“What do you want, I don’t drink alcohol,” she clarified to The Press. I could have a slush. » What flavor? ” Cherry. » With a touch of blue raspberry, it would give purple.