Lemaitre and Lewis-Francis claim a 1-3 in men’s 100m
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| Christophe Lemaitre (right) and Mark Lewis-Francis claimed a 1-3 in the men's 100m for Team Europe at the IAAF Continental Cup in Split on Saturday. (Photo by Giancarlo Colombo). |
Lemaitre came into the continental championships in red-hot form after his triple gold effort in Barcelona at the European Athletics Championships when he won the 100m, 200m and 4x100m.
He followed that up with a personal best 9.97 seconds recently in Rieti.
The Frenchman wasn’t able to match that today as he clocked 10.06 but it was enough to give Team Europe 8 points, with Lewis-Francis of Great Britain, the European championships silver medallist, claiming 6 points with a season-best 10.16.
“It was important to win at the end of a long season. My legs feel heavy. I had an Achilles’ tendon inflammation recently and a sore throat last week,” said Lemaitre.
The Americas Daniel Bailey finished second in 10.10.
“I expected a close race ... Bailey is a great competitor.”
Lemaitre immediately turned his thoughts to the 4x100m relay but triumph turned to disaster as Team Europe failed to put any points on the board following confusion on the final baton change between Pierre-Alexis Pessonneaux and Teddy Tinmar.
The French relay team thus failed to recall anything approaching the feats of their countrymen who set a then-world record in the 4x100m during the European Athletics Championships in the same stadium in 1990.
