Timothée Adolphe settles for silver, but breaks the curse in the 400m

Disqualified in Rio and Tokyo, the French para-athlete this time made a place for himself on the podium in the discipline with his guide Jeffrey Lami.

The reward despite the disappointment. Timothée Adolphe adorned himself with silver at the end of the 400m final, Sunday September 1st, in the T11 category (visual impairment). Not the metal hoped for for the 34-year-old Frenchman, who will nevertheless have to settle for it after two disqualifications on the track lap in Rio and Tokyo.

“We are disappointed, because we wanted gold. We have so much better legs, I have the highest speed base, but I am not necessarily the most resistant and it showed,” he lamented on France Télévisions alongside his guide Jeffrey Lami. The para-athlete led the race until the final straight, where he suddenly had his legs cut off, caught up by the series of three races in two days.

As he lost some of his synchronization with his partner, he was finally overtaken at the wire by the Venezuelan Enderson German Santos Gonzalez, who set his personal best. “We thought we deserved the gold, we thought we were ready. We’re going to get back up and keep moving forward, because we’re not going to give up on a medal. Despite this result which is hard to swallow, it’s the best memory of my career.”reacted Jeffrey Lami, with whom Timothée Adolphe has been running for eight years.

The big favourite in his final, the native of Versailles nevertheless won his second medal at the Games after the silver in the 100m in Japan three years ago. It is precisely on the main distance that he will try, from Wednesday, to console himself by finally winning the Paralympic gold that is missing from his list of achievements.