http://www.iaaf.org/WIC04/news/Kind=2/newsId=24128.html
Arron’s 7.08 improves on national 60m record – First day of French Indoor Championships
Saturday 21 February 2004
Aubière, France – World 4x100m champion Christine Arron and hurdler Ladji Doucoure showed they will be France’s best contenders for a medal in Budapest when they respectively recorded times of 7.08 in the women’s 60m and 7.54 in the men’s 60m Hurdles in the French championships, that are being held in Aubière from February 20 to 22.
After clocking 7.16 and 7.12 in the heats and semi-final, Christine Arron not only took back the national record to Muriel Hurtis by one hundredth of a second (7.09 in February 2003) but also set the second best time in the world behind Tabakova’s 7.06. She also clocked 6.12 in the 50m en route.
“I was feeling very well today,” commented Arron after the race. "I’ve been tired in the last few days because I had a very hard weight training session ten days ago. We’ll follow the same preparation plan towards the World Indoor Championships with another big weight session next week, so that I may not be in the same kind of shape in Lievin next Saturday, but the World Indoor Championships come above all.
Arron confident in her medal chances in Budapest
“I’m stronger this year. I’ve gained both in strength and speed. My coach Guy Ontanon has made the sessions harder. Last season, I had to get my muscles back, after my pregnancy. Even if I made a lot of progress throughout the year, I still found myself a bit short of time. That’s why I remained quite satisfied with my results in the World outdoor championships last year. Considering my pregnancy, it was a good performance,” she added.
“In Aubière today, I managed to run three very good races, both smoothly and technically. I’ve improved the first strides out of the block, which helps me to get a better posture in the race".
“For the moment, I just competed on the national level, so I now have to run against the best in the world. In Budapest, I’ll do my best and if I can sneak on the podium, I’ll be happy. I don’t know how fast I can go now, but the world record still appears a long way to go".
Guy Ontanon confirmed that it is good of his athlete to enter the World Indoor Championships with such credentials but warned that the times achieved by other athletes around the world until now might not be good indicators of how fast athletes will run in Budapest.
“It will also depend on the quality of the track. Who knows the title might only be won in 7.10. But if Christine opens the championships with 7.12 then she’ll be able to go faster," said Ontanon.
After a performance that she herself qualified as “disappointing”, 7.22 for second place, Muriel Hurtis admitted that she couldn’t explain “what is lacking at the moment”.
“I did the same weight session as Christine, but it didn’t bore its fruit for me,” she declared before announcing “I"ll give myself one more chance in Lievin, but if I don’t manage to lower my times, I’ll seriously reconsider my participation in Budapest. I won’t be going to Hungary to get out in semi-final.”
Doucoure twice under 7.60
In the men’s 60m Hurdles Ladji Doucouré set a streak of 7.59, 7.54 and 7.63. After a poor clearance during warm-up caused a pain to his right hamstring, he reconsidered his goals for the final.
“It is sure that if I could manage to combine the start I had in the heat with the race of the semi, I could achieve an excellent time, but in the end I just focused on the victory”.
Doucoure then added that his 15 days training camp in Gainesville had been really beneficial allowing him to have early high-level competition and with a memorable conclusion at the Millrose Games where he was second only to Allen Johnson for his first time in New-York.
Among other performances to be noted was the easy victory for Poland’s Sylvia Korzeniowska in the 3000m walk with a time of 12:53.45.
The pole vault was won by still relatively unknown Jerôme Clavier who cleared 5.65m, confirming his performance of Eaubonne (5.65m) on February 7th, while Jean Galfione failed in his attempt to get back in the French team. Romain Mesnil couldn’t clear a bar at all, missing all his three attempts at 5.50m.
In the men’s triple jump, NCAA champion Julien Kapek and Sébastien Pincemail managed to keep their head cold to achieve the qualifying standards for Budapest on their very last attempt with 16.96m and 16.82m.
Other qualifiers were Kenyan born Margaret Maury who won the 3000m in 8:53.99 ahead of Morocco’s Zahra Ouaziz (8:55.16).
Stéphane Cali, who clocked 6.68 in the 60m heats and shot putter Laurence Manfredi who shot the put at 18.20m in the qualifying rounds will still have another opportunity to improve their performance on Sunday.
In the combined events, Belgium’s Tia Hellebaut set a national record of 4589 points, securing her place for Budapest, while Birmingham’s bronze medallist Marie Collonvillé had to content with 4447 points. Laurent Hernu scored 5893 in the men’s heptathlon
On the first day of the competition, Cameroon’s Joseph Batangdon – a silver medallist in Birmingham last year – and Leslie Djhone won their respective 200m heats in 20.78 and 20.93, letting to expect for better things to come on Sunday.
Carole Fuchs for the IAAF