France’s Christophe Lemaitre, last month hailed as Europe’s best chance to break the Jamaican-US Olympic sprint hegemony, brought his disappointing season to an end Sunday with a victory in the men’s 100 metres.
Lemaitre, the French record-holder in the 100m with a best of 9.92sec, clocked 10.04sec to finish ahead of St Kitts and Nevis veteran Kim Collins (10.09sec) and Norway’s Ghana-born Jaysuma Saidy Ndure (10.14).
His winning time meant that the 22-year-old Frenchman failed to register a sub-10sec time this season, which has been in great contrast to that of 2011.
Lemaitre, the defending two-time European double sprint champion, finished fourth in the 100m in the Daegu world championships a year ago and then claimed bronze in the 200m in a French record of 19.80sec.
He skipped the 100m at the London Olympics, but after clocking 20.03 in the semi-final could only finish sixth in the final of the 200m in 20.19sec, with the top four finishers going under 19.90sec.
“For the end of season it’s good, I equalled my best performance,” Lemaitre said. “I would have hoped for better, but you can’t be choosy.
“There’s a bit of disappointment over the whole of the season because I didn’t medal in the Games and that was the goal.
“The satisfying things are France and Europe. But as a whole, there’s more disappointment than happiness.
“I’ve stagnated rather than gone backwards but there are questions that will be need to be asked to see what has to change.”
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