No false note for the French in the series of 110m hurdles. The three French representatives, Sasha Zhoya, Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and Just Kwaou-Mathey succeeded in their mission by qualifying for the semi-finals. But all was not easy, far from it. The great hope Sasha Zhoya even came close to falling and disillusionment. The 20-year-old athlete finally secured the essentials by finishing third in the third series (13″48), despite this big scare on the eighth hurdle.
Zhoya is not the only one to have come up against obstacles in his series. Daniel Roberts, United States champion, could not avoid the fall while he was comfortably in the lead. “The 110 meter hurdles can be very hot, summarized Zhoya at the microphone of France Télévisions after his race. You can touch a hedge, you can fall. It almost happened to me, I lost a lot of balance on the same hurdle as Roberts.“
Outsider to the medal, he who is among the most beautiful promises of international athletics, Sasha Zhoya was far from satisfied with his performance. “It wasn’t the perfect race, I had a lot of problems this week. But I’m happy to have made it to the semi-finals.The world junior champion and world record holder in the 110m hurdles knows he can and will have to do better – he ran more than three tenths off his best performance of the season – in the rest of the competition.
Not the same causes, but almost the same consequences for Pascal Martinot-Lagarde. The Mondia bronze medalist finished with the best time of the qualifiers on time (13 “49). “Warming up, I knew it wasn’t responding the way I wanted, I couldn’t get into it“, he explained to France Télévisions.
“PML” refuses however to be alarmed, with the experiment. “I know I’m someone who can up his game with every round. Each time, I do correct series, faster semi-finals and in the final I give everything. There, I’m not going to hide from you that I screwed up a bit. 13 “49, it’s not crazy-crazy for a series.“
The last French representative, Just Kwaou-Mathey, 22, did not tremble by signing a very correct 13″32, to finish third in his series. The best time in the series is the work of the American Grant Holloway ( 13″14), very serious contender for gold. The Tokyo Olympic champion, the Jamaican Hansle Parchment, also author of the best world performance of the season, also qualified with seriousness (13″17).