There will be around 80 French players in four weeks at the Paris Games, and on the track in Angers this weekend, Olympic dreams will have crashed as much as others will have taken off… Two Stade Bordelais players have experienced flight plans, each at the opposite end of the spectrum of what a career is.
Pure Girondine, the pole vaulter Marie-Julie Bonnin, 22 years old, far from the minima, smile stuck on her bright face, won the title of champion of France necessary to move up to the ranking (world ranking). Teddy Tamgho, 35 years of happiness and bumps, whose only Bordeaux native is his license, came out of a glorious five-year retirement for a bet on Paris. He needed the minima (17.22 m), he remained far from it.
Tamgho with humor
Teddy Tamgho.
Unfortunately, the morning rain returned at exactly the wrong time, around 7:30 p.m., to soap up the track for the feat. Not enough to calm Tamgho, who fractured his femur on this same track in 2016, in search of a minimum for Rio. Against fate, he showed his biceps and called to the cheers of the crowd, started with a 16.44, added 16.47, far from the minimum (17.22 m). He will not have done better, welcoming failure with humor. “I didn’t keep my word, I said I was going to give everything and either do the minimums or get injured. I don’t have either of them, well I’m in the middle because my ankle is swelling,” he declared after the competition, won by a former Bordeaux player, Malvin Raffin (16”83), and in to which Benjamin Compaoré will have said goodbye, like Tamgho.
Almost at the same time, Bonnin cleared 4.31 m then 4.41 m on the first attempt, to be alone head to head with Ninon Chapelle, and ahead in the number of attempts. Chapelle stuck three times at 4.48 m, bar cleared on the 2nd try by the Bordelaise, staring at a trembling bar. “I felt that I had touched her, when I got up from the mat, I saw her still there. I thought God was with me tonight. It’s not just an expression, I’m a believer. »
It should pass
She attempted 5.62 m, narrowly failing on the 3rd attempt. “I’m a bit frustrated, it wasn’t far, I had taken the right pole, which I almost never used.” “A priori, I will move on to the ranking, but as long as it’s not official, I remain cautious,” added Damiel Dossevi’s student, hoping that Margot Chevriertraining companion, recovered enough from her injury to also go to the Olympics.
Over 800 m, Gabriel Tual found himself in the same series as Coretin Le Clezio, the 4th Frenchman to have achieved the Olympic minimums. The Talençais took the lead from the start to finish detached (1’48”48) while Le Clezio snatched his place in the final. They will meet on Sunday with Yanis Méziane and Benjamin Robert, the two other holders of the minimums, and only the first three of them will go to Paris.
Hilary Kpatcha put on a show in the long jump (6.70 m), ahead of Eloyse Lesieur, who was moved to tears for her farewell. There was also a show in the 400 m hurdles series with Louise Maraval easily qualifying for Sunday’s final, like the promising junior from Grand Angoulême Meta Tumba, probably the Los Angeles 2028 generation.
Sunday’s highlights
Pole vault, Renaud Lavillenie’s last chance for Paris, with Thibaut Collet (start at 1 p.m.). Men’s 400 hurdles (2:30 p.m., Wilfried Happio), women’s (2:40 p.m., Louise Maraval, Méta Tumba), men’s 400 m (2:50 p.m.), women’s 200 m (3:10 p.m., Gemina Jospeh, Hélène Parisot), 110 m hurdles (1:50 p.m., final at 3:25 p.m., with Sasha Zhoya, Aurel Manga…)
