Lucie Lagesse narrowly missed the podium. Namibian Melissa Hinz beat her by 21 seconds to win the bronze medal.
A frustrating first day at the African Championships yesterday for the Mauritian camp. We expected medals, but nothing happened. The individual time trial events did not please our representatives.
In the elite, the two representatives of the quadricolor finished in fourth place. In the men’s race, Alexandre Mayer covered the three laps of the circuit, totaling 33.6 kilometers in 44 minutes and 15 seconds from Ugandan Charles Kagimu who retained his title with a time of 41:11. He is ahead of South African Brandon Downes by 8 seconds (41:19) while the podium is completed by Moroccan Adil El Arbaoui in 42:50. There were 17 cyclists competing.
In the women’s race, Lucie Lagesse completed the two laps (22.4 km) in 33 minutes and 59 seconds, 2 minutes and 27 seconds behind Lucy Young of South Africa. The other South African, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio took second place in 32:04. Namibian Melissa Hinz won the bronze medal with a time of 33:38. “I gave everything. I couldn’t have done more but I’m super happy with my effort. It was difficult with the altitude. I finished near the podium. It will be for next year,” confided Lucie Lagesse afterwards. 11 participants were in action.
Aurélien de Comarmond forfeits
In the juniors, where there were also two laps of the circuit to cover, Lucas Froget and Samuel Dupuy finished very far from the best, in 12th and 19th places. The first finished 3 minutes and 13 seconds behind the Eritrean gold medalist, Keven Teklemariam, author of 28:48, while the second conceded 6 minutes and 22 seconds having suffered a mechanical problem.
For his first in an individual time trial at this level, Lucas Froget did well according to head coach, Trevor Court.
The South African Alexandre Erasmus won the silver medal with a time of 28:54 while the other Eritrean, Nahom Efriem, took the bronze in 29:14.
A hard blow for the under-23 men, with the withdrawal of Aurélien de Comarmond who was unable to start after suffering from diarrhea and vomiting yesterday morning. A shame, because he represented a very good chance of a podium.
“Lucie and Alex both took fourth place. As for Aurélien, we decided that it was wiser for him not to line up since he had diarrhea and vomiting in the morning. We even took him to the hospital and he was put on serum. He’s better. It’s frustrating, because he has already beaten the three medalists under 23 in previous editions. We hope he will make a full recovery with the medication he has been prescribed. For Lucas Froget, it was his first CLM at this level and he did rather well, while for Samuel Dupuy, a mechanical problem compromised his chances. His gears were no longer working and after the first lap he was already a minute behind the best.commented Trevor Court, the head coach who leads the delegation on Kenyan soil.
Next event tomorrow with the junior men’s 100 km road race.
