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Mayer and Lemaitre are the French heroes

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One event had waited 68 years, the other 56, but this morning it is the present not the past that is being celebrated by French athletics.

In under an hour in the Olympic Stadium in Rio last night, the country won two medals to remember as Kevin Mayer took silver in the decathlon and Christophe Lemaitre sprinted to 200m bronze.

As the giant scoreboard showed the result of his race, Lemaitre screamed out, fell to his knees, raised both arms to the skies and just could not believe it. After a summer ravaged by injury, he was on the podium.

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By then, teammate Mayer was beginning to digest his own brilliant performance after he became the first Frenchman since silver medallist Ignace Heinrich in London in 1948 to win an Olympic decathlon medal.

Mayer broke the national record as he scored 8834 points, just 59 behind American Ashton Eaton who retained his title with Canada’s Damian Warner (8666) in third.

But what a competition, and what a second day for Mayer, the European silver medallist in 2014 and world junior champion in 2010.

After starting and ending on Wednesday with personal bests of 10.81 in the 100m and 48.28 in the 400m respectively, Mayer was fourth overall (4435) behind Eaton (4621), Germany’s Kai Kazmirek (4500) and Warner (4489).

But the Frenchman was just sensational on Thursday and at one point during the penultimate event, the javelin, he actually led.

After 14.02 in the 110m hurdles, 46.78m in the discus, a pb of 5.40m in the pole vault - which he won with the best overall mark on countback - and a javelin of 65.04m, it all came down to the 1500m, the last discipline with world record-holder Eaton leading Mayer by just 44 points.

With an 80-point swing in his favour (814 to 734) from that last event, Mayer had cut Eaton’s lead at the top, while Kazmirek (7844) was in fourth, also just 44 points behind Warner.

It could not have been more dramatic.

Eaton had over a 3.5 second advantage on personal best times to Mayer and to secure enough points, the Frenchman had to beat his rival by over six seconds.

He created a gap between them on the opening two laps but it was not to be as in a race won by Algeria’s Larbi Bourrada (4:14.60), Eaton (4:23.33) came through for third and Mayer (4:25.49) was fifth.

But what a night of glory for the Frenchman who broke the national record of Christian Plaziat (8574) that had stood since 1990.

Mayer said, speaking to L’Equipe: 'I had imagined that total in the decathlon in a lot of calculations. But to do that, it's completely different.

'For four years I have only thought about this decathlon. These last three weeks, and even before, there was a lot of pressure. I had trouble sleeping…Now it is over, I’m 24 and I’m an Olympic silver medallist.'

It was quite an event of personal bests for Europe, as Kazmirek (8580) was fourth, Belgium’s European champion Thomas Van Der Plaetsen (8332) was eighth, and the Czech Republic’s Adam Helcelet (8291) was 12th, all with their best-ever scores.

Within the hour, Lemaitre, 26, the four-times European gold medallist including winning the 200m in 2010, took his place in lane seven of the final, with Usain Bolt on his immediate inside.

The Jamaican was gone as the gun fired, storming to victory as he won the title for the third successive time (19.78) with Canada’s Andre De Grasse (20.02) in second ahead of a sensational race for third.

Lemaitre looked out of it with 50m left but he came battling through, defying his troubled year, to snatch bronze on the line from Great Britain’s Adam Gemili, with both men recording the same time of 20.12, followed by the Netherlands’ Churandy Martina (20.13) in fifth.

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'This medal is the most beautiful,' said Lemaitre, after his amazingly animated celebration. 'It’s a resurrection. All the work that I’ve done has paid off in this moment…and it rewarded the work of everyone around me.'

The result meant Lemaitre was the first Frenchman to win an Olympic 200m medal since Abdoulaye Seye in Rome in 1960.

But that was then, and this truly was now.




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