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December 2009
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Doucouré: “Terrible technique, who cares!” |
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05.03.2009 |
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French Ladji Doucoure with Czech Petr Svoboda and defending champion Gregory Sedoc
of Netherlands after winning the 60m hurdles title on the opening day of the European
Athletics Indoor Championships in Torino.
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By his own account, France's Ladji Doucouré ran
the most ragged major race of his career but sheer guts and determination
regained him the European Athletics Indoor Championships gold medal he won four
years ago.
The 2005 European Indoor champion
and World Champion in the outdoor discipline over 110m hurdles the same year
clocked 7.55, to just edge home by a few thousands-of-a-second ahead of the
Dutch defending champion Gregory Sedoc.
"My technique was terrible but,
who cares? I had to struggle throughout the race but I've got a gold
medal. I was almost on my knees just
before the second hurdle, I got over it and saw that I was still up with Gregory
and still in the race. Of course, everything happens too quickly to think so
deeply in the middle of the race, you just react, but I think that was what was
going through my mind," said Doucouré, who pleaded for forgiveness after his
stream of bad language and French swear words after crossing the line.
"I thought I'd won in the final
few metres and when I crossed the line I just let off steam after years of
frustration and injuries since 2005. It was a completely different race than
four years. I was so fresh then, I didn't know anything and had never suffered
any injuries and I was coming off a great winter," added a delighted Doucouré.
Sedoc, the fastest starter
although Doucouré quickly drew alongside him, was left to reflect on the fact
that gold had turned into silver two years after his triumph in Birmingham.
"Ive got mixed emotions. I've
lost my crown, and I had a good start so there are no excuses, but at the same
time this was a real final with all the top men and I'm so much better than I
was two years ago," said Sedoc.
Behind the leading pair was the
Czech Republic's Petr Svoboda, the fastest man in the semi-finals with 7.55,
who gave his country their second hurdles medal in a matter of minutes.
However, in contrast to the
thrilled Lucie Skrobáková after her silver in the women's race, Svoboda cut a
more disappointed figure.
"After the semi-final I thought I
was in good shape and could challenge for the gold medal, but I crashed into
the third hurdle and knew that the chance of winning had gone. At that point I
just tried to catch Doucouré and Sedoc but I was chasing them. Without that
mistake, I still think I could have got the gold," said Svoboda.
Yevgeniy Borisov is still the fastest
European this year with the 7.45 he clocked in Stuttgart on February 7 but the
Russian again proved to be an erratic performer on the big occasion and had to
settle for fifth place in 7.64.
However, Borisov might consider himself
lucky to be in the final at all, after being initially disqualified for a
trailing leg infraction after winning his semi and then only being reinstated
barely an hour before the final.
"I used up a lot of energy worrying
about the disqualification and then the appeal. In fact, I was asleep at first
after the semi and didn't know I'd been disqualified but then somebody woke me
up to tell me what was going on and, of course, I was very nervous about
whether I was even going to be in the final," reflected Borisov.
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