Christophe Lemaitre might not be quite as renowned for his exploits on the boards but the Olympic 200m bronze medallist produced two excellent performances over 60m at the Meeting Elite de Mondeville, a European Athletics Area Permit Meeting, on Saturday (3) evening.
Lemaitre’s lifetime best of 6.55 dates back to 2010 when he was a teeanger but the Frenchman came close to that eight-year-old mark in the heats, qualifying as the fastest for the evening’s showstopper in 6.57.
Jimmy Vicaut opened his season with 6.62 to win his heat but the anticipated head-to-head didn’t quite play out in the final. Lemaitre almost matched the time he set in the heats with 6.58 with Ghana’s Sean Safo-Antwi splitting the French sprinters in second with 6.65, 0.01 ahead of Vicaut.
Finale 60m hommes @AOMH14
— France Bleu Normandie (Calvados, Orne) (@fbleubnormandie) February 3, 2018
Victoire de Christophe Lemaitre pic.twitter.com/TQMAAusFS9
The 2018 season is shaping up to be a busy one for Lemaitre. Not only has he outlined his plans to contest the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships, Lemaitre is also midway through a degree in sports management.
The women’s 60m hurdles final produced a blanket finish with the top five finishers separated by 0.02. After clocking 8.12 in the heats, Ukraine’s Hanna Plotitsyna was given the verdict in 8.16 with the United States’ Jade Barber credited with the same time.
There was another French victory in the pole vault with joint national pole vault record-holder Ninon Guillon-Romarin clearing 4.52m although European indoor U20 record-holder Melvin Raffin and European U20 champion Martin Lamou had to settle for second and fourth respectively in the triple jump which was won by British veteran Nathan Douglas with 16.30m.
There were two more European wins on the track. Former European U23 cross country champion Jonny Davies took a good win over 3000m in 7:56.13 and Poland’s Iga Baumgart was fastest across the two 400m races in 53.56.