For the first time in her young career, the sprinter won in the final of the French elite speed championship, dethroning the defending champion Taky Marie-Divine Kouamé.
Nothing better to start the year than with the most beautiful metal: gold. Saturday January 4, 2025, Guadeloupean runner Marie-Louisa Drouode was crowned French speed champion during the elite track cycling championships which take place from January 3 to 5 at the Brittany Velodrome in Loudéac (Côtes-d'Armor).
“Honestly, I can’t believe it”she reacted to the specialized site DirectVelo after climbing to the top of the podium for the first time in her young career. “It was quite close. I said to myself: 'Wow, I was finally able to have this title that I've been waiting for all my life!'. Being French Champion is something that stays for life and no one cannot take it away from us, even if the following years, we are 2ᵉ, 3ᵉ or not on the podium. It's signed, it's recorded.”
In the final, Saturday, the licensee of the Créteil Kronos club (USCK) faced her teammate Taky Marie-Divine Kouamé, double champion of France (2021 and 2024). A scenario that she already knew: last year, Marie-Louisa Drouode finished second, behind Taky Marie-Divine Kouamé. This year, the 19-year-old Guadeloupean took her revenge. She won in 11″509 during the first round. If she conceded victory during the second round, she made up for it in the third, in 11″511.
Already a medalist at the junior European championship and the elite French championship, the young cyclist tasted victory for the first time. Marie-Louisa Drouode started riding her bike in Guadeloupe. Now in France, she regularly goes back and forth to her island thanks to the support of her mother. “She had little choice but to work even harder to pay for return train tickets for me when I travel through France. The most expensive are the tickets between Guadeloupe and France. They are really excessively expensive. It's hard being overseas and having to travel all the time.”confided the young champion to DirectVelo.
Thanks to her good ranking in the kilometer event (she finished 3rd) and her gold medal in speed, Marie-Louisa Drouode now hopes to secure her place for the next European track cycling championships which will take place in Belgium in February.
France
