The duel between Jimmy Vicaut and Christophe Lemaitre at the French Championships always had the potential of being something special - and so it proved at Villeneuve D’Ascq over the weekend.
On Saturday, it was the 100m, the event where Vicaut has rocketed to equal the European record with his 9.86 last week at the Diamond League meeting in Paris.
And once more he showed his electric speed over the distance to win in 9.92, the second quickest time of his career, with Lemaitre, the double European champion at the distance, in second in 10.07, his best of the season to move to fifth in the European Athletics rankings, with Emmanuel Biron in third in 10.20.
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Vicaut really is in a brilliant vein of form as he heads towards the IAAF World Championships in Beijing in a few weeks where he is fast-becoming a medal contender.
But then 24 hours later, it was Lemaitre’s turn to triumph.
In 20.28, Lemaitre reversed the positions of the 100m to win the 200m with Vicaut second in 20.42.
There is no question of the ability of France’s women 400m runners, who are European champions indoors and out, and so the domestic duel was always going to be fast and thrilling.
Floria Guei won it in a European-leading 51.06 from Marie Gayot in 51.27, the pair both having played major parts in those relay golds. In Zurich, last summer, Guei’s brilliant finish brought glory after Gayot had run the first leg, and then in Prague in March, they reversed the order they ran with Gayot bringing home the glory.
There was delight for Teddy Venel in the men’s 400m as he won his first national title in 45.72 having been runner-up in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014.
The 110m hurdles brought a surprise as Garfield Darien beat European No. 1 Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, 13.17 to 13.27, and Renaud Lavillenie returned to winning ways in the pole vault after his defeat in the Diamond League in Lausanne on Thursday. He won with 5.85m and then missed out at 6.00m.
Tuka does it again
It is becoming a fine summer for Bosnia’s Amel Tuka who broke his national record to become Europe’s No. 1 over 800m at the Madrid Meeting on Saturday.
The 2013 European Under-23 bronze medallist ran a superb 1:43.84 to triumph from Burundi’s Antonine Gakeme in second and Kenya’s Job Kinyor in third, with both men given the same time of 1:44.09.
Bulgaria’s Gabriela Petrova’s 14.54m was enough to beat Israel’s Hanna Minenko’s 14.38m in the triple jump as Portugal’s Susana Costa broke her personal best with 14.32m to take third place.
Apostolos Parellis, of Cyprus, won the men’s discus with 60.79m, an impressive victory ahead of world leader, Jason Morgan, of Jamaica, fourth with 59.32m.
There are 39 meetings in Europe this week - led by the European Athletics Junior Championships in Eskilstuna starting on Thursday. For full details, go to www.european-athletics.org/calendar