no medal for Sasha Zhoya and Wilhem Belocian in the 110m hurdles

We were expecting the first French medal of the 2023 world championships in the 110m hurdles. But on Monday August 21, at the Nemzeti Atletikai Kozpont stadium in Budapest, Sasha Zhoya (13.26 seconds) and Wilhem Belocian (13.32 seconds) took sixth and eighth place in the final. The two tricolor hurdlers could not do anything in front of their American and Jamaican rivals.

Winner in 12.96, the American Grant Holloway is now triple world champion. The Jamaican Hansle Parchment finished second in 13 s 07 ahead of another American, David Roberts, third in 13 s 09. Under the eyes of Guy Drut, former Olympic champion in the discipline in 1976, present on the set of France Télévision in Budapest, Zhoya and Belocian missed their final a bit.

For the second time in a row, the third tricolor Just Kwaou-Mathey was eliminated in the semi-finals, third in his race in 13 s 31. A first slight disappointment for the French hurdler who hatched last year at the highest level and who had beaten his personal record at the Paris meeting this year in 13 s 09.

In the semi-finals, Sasha Zohya had however shown great things. In Budapest, the reigning double French champion first took a promising second place behind the favorite Grant Holloway by even improving his personal best in 13 s 15. He could not repeat it in the final.

First World Finals for Zhoya and Belocian

Still, the great hope of French athletics has nevertheless reached a milestone. Last year, diminished by pain in the Achilles tendon, he was eliminated in the semi-finals in Eugene. This season he had his preparation delayed by a broken toe in May and showed up in Budapest “not a hundred percent” because of new pain in the Achilles tendon.

At 21, Zhoya is the talent of French athletics. At the start of 2020, his choice to defend the colors of the France team had been highly publicized. The athlete had different possibilities since he was born and raised in Australia to a French mother, very present at his side, and a Zimbabwean father.

The young man has always lined up the titles: double European champion and junior world champion, European hopefuls champion and also holder of the junior and junior world records in the specialty.

In 2022, for his first season on hurdles of 1.06 m, against 99 cm until then, he impresses everyone with his ability to adapt. In Albi in July 2023, Zhoya retained his national title by running in 13 s 01, a time not approved because of too favorable a wind, ahead of Wilhem Belocian and Just Kwaou-Mathey. “France, the 110m hurdles is their event. We were four to have done the minimum. It’s very dense, it was like a semi-final or a world final.he summarized

The protege of Ladji Doucouré, French record holder in 12 s 97 and 2005 world champion, assumed his ambitions ahead of these world championships. “There is pressure because people want me to go fast, but it’s good pressure”, he thought. Before adding: “Me, I want to take the French record, and one day, the world record. But I’m still young in the game, I have to gain experience. »

For his part, Wilhem Belocian can console himself by having qualified for his first world final. A good performance for the man who beat his personal best this summer thanks to a time set at the meeting in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in 13 s 07.

At 28, the former 2014 junior world champion finally confirms the expectations placed on him after having experienced many disappointments during his career. Despite a few brilliant strokes – bronze medalist at the European Championships in the 110m hurdles in 2016, a European title in the 60m hurdles – this precocious talent notably missed his first two Olympic meetings: disqualified in series during the 2016 Games in Rio due to a false start, he was unable to defend his chances in 2020 in Tokyo due to injury, eliminated from the series.

In Rio, his Olympic failure had marked him strongly. “The failure at the Games, at 21, was a big blowtestifies his ex-trainer, Ketty Cham. We had to get over it and it took almost two years. »

Promising for the 2024 Olympics

In 2022, when he had begun his return to the highest level, he had suffered further disappointments despite a promising winter season. He finished 8^e of the 60m hurdles final of the world indoor championships in Istanbul. Then, injured, he missed the outdoor Worlds before not being selected by the French Athletics Federation for the European Championships in Munich.

In 2023, the confirmation of his potential corresponds to a change of life since he joined Teddy Tamgho’s training group in Lille. In September 2022, he announced his departure for the metropolis, he who had never left his island. “I was really anchored in Guadeloupe, in a comfort zone. If I wanted to pass capes, I had to break this comfort zone and go to mainland France where I had refused to go for some time”he analyzes.

In a year, during the Olympic Games in Paris, the two athletes will have to continue their progress and be able to run at their best level in the final. In a very dense discipline, an Olympic medal is at this price.