Lemaitre, Lavillenie and Lesueur shine at DecaNation meeting in Nice

French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre won the 100m  clocking 10.12 at the DecaNation meeting in Nice over the weekend.

Fresh from their medal wins at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, local heroes Christophe Lemaitre, Renaud Lavillenie along with Eloyse Lesueur starred for France at the 7th edition of DecaNation held in Nice on Sunday. 

Team USA won the overall event ahead of European heavyweights Russia and Germany.

Reigning European champion and world 200m bronze medallist Lemaitre came out of his holidays to claim some points for the French team.

He was visibly tired after yet another outstanding season where he broke new ground, setting new national records in both the 100m and 200m.

In Nice, he seemed in trouble from the start as former Olympic champion Justin Gatlin of the United States opened a clear margin. But the young Frenchman again demonstrated his skills and leaned first at the finish line in 10.12, 0.06sec ahead of the former world champion.

Renaud Lavillenie was disappointed after failing to win the gold in Daegu but he celebrated his 25th birthday in a fine manner, vaulting over 5.82m. Rivals Dmitry Starodubtsev (RUS) and Malte Mohr (GER) cleared 5.60m but failed at 5.72m.

The performance of the day came surprisingly from the long jump pit and Eloyse Lesueur. The Frenchwoman failed to qualify for the finals in Daegu but she produced a superb performance to clear a career best 6.91m, which ranks her fourth on the 2011 world list.

Other performances of note were Alexander Menkov’s (RUS) jump of 8.20m (+0.2) to take the top prize in the men’s long jump ahead of South African Luvo Manyonga's 7.99m and French triple jumper Benjamin Compaoré's 7.80m (-0.1).

Elena Slesarenko (RUS) won the women’s high jump with a 1.95m clearance, two centimetres higher than Frenchwoman Mélanie Melfort.

Click here for complete results.