The leader of the French team Kevin Mayer, reigning world champion, gave up after the second decathlon event on Friday at the Budapest World Championships, announced the French athletics federation (FFA).
The decathlon world record holder, hit in the left Achilles tendon, had warned that he would not take any risks one year before the Paris Olympics, and stops before the shot put, the 3rd of 10 events.
Zero medal for France
France’s balance sheet in Hungary remains stuck at zero and its main chance has just vanished. In 2022 at the Worlds in Eugene (Oregon, United States), Mayer brought back the only medal for the Blues. The double Olympic silver medalist (2016 and 2021), therefore experiences a new disillusion, after his abandonment in the middle of the decathlon in Doha at the Worlds-2019. In August 2022 at the Munich Euro, he had similarly given up just after the 100m, a few weeks after his victory in Eugene.
Friday, after running the 100 m in 10 sec 79 (-0.1 m / s), Mayer jumped in length to 7.25 m (-0.1 m / s), two performances far from his best level, carried out with their faces closed, the defending champion’s orange bib hanging from their white jersey. In the combined classification, he was then 16th, far from his main rivals.
“There are too many risks. We are sticking to our course of action: the main deadline is in eleven months. We are going to adjust next season to qualify for the Olympics. He did it before Rio, he did it before Tokyo, there is no reason for that to be a problem,” said his coach Alexandre Bonacorsi.
“I never want it to happen to me before Paris”
In Budapest, Mayer (31) explained that his left Achilles tendon had been hurting him for two weeks and a 400 meter session. “It can be seen that it hurts, don’t get yourself into trouble,” Bonacorsi told him on Friday morning after his three tries at length. Tuesday, at a press conference, Mayer had indicated that he did not want to take any risks with his health before the Paris Olympics.
“I have the experience of a big injury in Doha (crack in the left Achilles tendon and tear at the Worlds-2019), where I had pushed too much. I had taken until February to start running again. I never want it to happen to me before Paris,” he said. “Kéké” will therefore don his superhero cape to once again save a French team in distress.
The Blues hoped for a rise
The Blues, having become a small nation in the world hierarchy, were not aiming for a raid in the Hungarian capital, but were hoping for a rise in power and a few rays of sunshine a year from treading the purple tartan of the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
Alas, they only have three “finalist” places (top-8) for the moment after six days of competition. Very few athletes took advantage of Budapest’s perfect conditions to improve their record, or even to achieve their best performance of the season. Some hopes remain with the steepler Alice Finot, in the final on Sunday, the half-founder Rénelle Lamote, in the half of the 800m on Friday evening, and the relays, mainly the men’s 4x100m, which has been particularly worked on for two years.