Benjamin Robert won silver in the 800m at the Indoor Athletics Euros on Sunday in Istanbul, beaten by one breath by the Spaniard Adrian Ben. Agnès Raharolahy struggled to snatch the bronze medal in the 800m, her first international medal.
The French Benjamin Robert, in silver, and Agnès Raharolahy, in bronze, climbed on the podium of the 800m of the Euro indoor athletics on Sunday in Istanbul, a competition which acts as a dress rehearsal before the Paris Olympics 2024 Robert was beaten by one breath by Spaniard Adrian Ben. The two athletes ran in 1 min 47 sec 34 and were separated by a thousandth of a second.
In the lead in the last of the four laps, Robert was brought up at the end by Ben who better “broken” on the line and was rewarded with the photo finish. Belgian Eliott Crestan took the bronze medal. At 25, the Toulousain, 5th at the last Munich Euro in August 2022, validates his progress in recent years with a first international medal.
First medal for Raharolahy
It is also a first individual international medal for Raharolahy (30), a former 400m specialist who has moved to 800m for two seasons. She was crowned European indoor champion in the 4×400 m relay in 2015 in Prague.
Raharolahy ran Sunday in 2 min 00 sec 85 behind the untouchable Briton Keely Hodgkinson (1:58.66) and the Slovenian Anita Horvat (2:00.54). The two half-backers brought a fourth and a fifth medal to the French team.