Christophe Lemaitre "White Lightning" 9.92 and 19.80!

I sure wish that Craig Pickering had a better coach and a training partner like Christophe. He needs that. The feud between him and some of his a**hole teammates is helping to hold the kid back. He needs a serious change.

I'm not despondent,but I can't lie I wanted more.To dq in the quarter-final is just leaving alot on the table.In their defense I wouldn't want him to risk injury.I believe I read somewhere else in this forum he was only putting in eight hours training a week,consistent with a junior athlete,which leaves me to wonder if his training team wasn't a little surprised by this years performance as well,and maybe foreseeing the world juniors as the end of his season,they maybe fear that they did not build enough of a base for an extended season.I'm just wondering. Pick? Yeah this guy's getting no support.I don't think Malcolm Arnold's any kind of guru. Remember Collin Jackson? I would not take a video tape of his hurdling style and teach kids his technique,I never did care for his bow leg approach to the hurdle.As best as I could tell his success was all on him. I've said it before,but so what if I'm redundant,Pickering reminds me of a potential Wells,and one thing Wells had was support through a loyal wife who helped train him,that kind of support is immeasurable.Wells was also stubborn,he didn't even use starting blocks until he was forced by rules,and support system is absolutely essential for those kinds of personalities somebody to finally spell it out for you that you can trust.Trust me I know this for a fact personally. But it's also the kind of personality that endures. It took forever for Wells to get his stuff together and when he did the dam burst.I'm hoping the same thing for Pick.

Christophe was invited to the next two Golden League Meets in August. His coach decided that rest was more important. It kills me to see him not get the record when he was so close. I will say this. He has a good coach. This guy uses some things in training that I have not seen before. It would have been nice to see one more race but the long term is what is more important. I just hate the thought of waiting a half year or so before I see him race again other than the relay. Oh well. At least football is about to start.

Let him rest. I think Lemaitre should avoid the indoor season as well and concentrate on building power and strength in his torso. What's holding him back is lack of upper body strength.

the French 4x100 relay came in third in their heat, but did you see the closing speed of Cristophe?!?!

wow!

this guy is so sick i cant wait until he matures.

in order to break 10 what do you guys think are the things that he has to work on?

Simple as working on the drive phase, keeping his head more steady as he runs and most of improving his strength. Both upper and lower body. All of these things will he him out tremendously. He is a natural born runner. He just has it!

I agree. It's tough the wait. I think he would have definitely broke 10 this year.

Strength! He lacks upper body strength. (The Shoulder/ upper back area is as much as 30% responsible for running sprinting speed)<div>
</div><div>He has the stride length. He needs power and strength to increase turnover and to reach top speed faster and maintain it. If he cant hit top speed at 35 -45 meters like Bolt, and like Usain Bolt, he is long legged and covers a lot of ground, he will be very very very very very good </div>

We talked about this briefly a couple of days ago. I just wanted you guys who didn't get to see the semi final relay race with Christophe to watch it. Remember that the anchor(last)leg of the relay is usually the fastest sprinter for that nation. Chrisophe nearly catches a sub 10 sprinter from Trinidad & Tobago. The ground he makes up is incredible. The announcers talk about it quite a bit and keep showing it over and over even though it's not in english. They keep mentioning his name. All I can say is this kid is a superstar. He has so much potential. I have not been this excited over a sprinter in a long time as far as the times he might be able to put up in the next 5-10 years. Watch and enjoy a future star of the world!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7oBzsjFM-wEdited by: white lightning

yep, he's flying. He must have made up 5 metres on the japanese guy.
I'd like to know the split

kid is hauling ass! I really wish he would get one or two more races in this season. can't wait for next season!

"After the false start, I felt under pressure because I was worried I wouldn't get out the blocks fast enough. Unfortunately, it made me rush even too fast".

so he knows this is a weakness at this stage. No-one can deny his hauling ability at maximum speed, it's just that if you come out of the drive phase 2 metres down you're not going to catch the elite sprinters in finals.

I'm sure the French athletic federation bio-mechanists and conditioning coaches are going to make this guy their guinea pig over the next few years.
He took only 37 and a bit strides to do that rolling start 100Edited by: mastermulti

He needs to gain strength, particularly in his Shoulders. I just hope his coach knows what he is doing and get this kid in the weight room. When I played football, I increased my speed tremendously just by increasing my shoulder and back strength. Turnover comes from the upper body and core strength. Squats, and explosive weight lifting will help with his start exploding out of the blocks and his natural long legs will maintain his speed. He is so Raw and untapped, I cannot begin to fathom what he can do.

Thanks for the youtube clip white lightning. Very impressive! I agree with FastEuro that Christophe should avoid the indoor season this year, and concentrate on training hard for the European Championships outdoor, which he could very possibly win. Firstly nobody really cares about the indoors, and secondly they suit short runners, unlike Lemaitre.

I actually hope NOT to hear much about Christophe in the mass media: that way there will be less chance of a Shirvo-style burnout. If he gets built up too much, too many endorsements, women start throwing themselves at him, there's a danger he'll become a "celebriddy" and lose the "eye of the tiger"! I just hope he can get some quality training in the bank this winter (especially in the weight room), and shock those arrogant black cornholes from Britain in the Euros.

Btw good to see another white guy in the French 4x100 (the third leg runner). Hopefully that will help Lemaitre from feeling isolated or getting attitude from the blacks (a la Pickering).

Welcome to the board gulf177. It's too bad that track season is almost over. It sounds like you enjoy it as much as I do along with many posters here. We are like family here. Or you could say we are like friends/brothers. It is one of the few places anywhere where whites can be proud of our many athletic acheivments. I hope you enjoy it here.

Christophe Lemaitre is different from any white sprinter we have ever seen. The only one I could compare him to is Allan Wells although Lemaitre is faster. Borzov would be a descent comparisson if he were taller as they both can run both events equally well. We need to remember Guliyev too. I see Christophe having a very long and successful career. If he can keep his head right, and avoid major injuries, the record books will be re written. I'm not saying he will go as fast as Bolt. I'm just saying that he will in my opinion be able to run in the 9.80's in the next 3-4 years. He is that good. I just don't want to jinx him just like all of us here. Let's hope he can handle the pressure from both the media, his country and the fans. Good luck to this young man. He is a joy to watch run. He brings back memories of sprinting to alot of us that used to. If only we could all run like him. That is why they call him The Master. We here at this board also call him PepeLeFlew! Edited by: white lightning

welcome gulf177, you make allot of good points. glad to have another compassionate track fan on the board!

They are discussing who might have a chance to challenge Bolt in 2012 over at trackandfieldnews.com on the message board. A few posters are bringing up Christophe and talking about how he has world class talent. We know that here but it is great to see him getting some publicity at regular track boards. One poster by the screen name of noon said this and I couldn't agree more.

"Did anyone see the semi-final round of the 4x100 relay in Berlin? Lemaitre made up a monster gap on Richard Thompson on the anchor leg in their heat. I don't mean he gained on him a little. He swallowed him alive.
Trinidad was so far ahead he couldn't catch him, but it was clear he outran Thompson. And this is the same Thompson who was silver in Beijing and tied for 4th a week earlier in the fastest 100m ever."

Excellent point. This kid is so raw! When he gets some muscle and continues to improve his form, look out! It will be very exciting next summer but even more so as we approach 2012 and the London Olympics! I love watching this kid run.Edited by: white lightning

I'm still holding out hope on Pickering. I would be honest if I thought he couldn't break-through, but he's just not done yet. He, even now hits incredible top end speeds, and he has had some mix of bad luck over the last two years. It is possible to be in a two year slump, and lest we forget this guy is still very young. I believe I read somewhere that Allan wells did not break ELEVEN seconds until 1978 and that was after 6 years of training after his conversion from being a long jumper. Two years later he dropped a 10.11 and won an Olympic Gold in Moscow,and continued to have a long and stellar top-end career. This young man has more natural talent than Wells, and if he has anything close to his dogged-ness we will be seeing great things from him.

Wells won gold in the 200m and relay, and silver in the 100 at the C"wealth Games in Canada in 1978 so it'd be surprising he was picked for the team if he hadn't run under 11 the season leading up to those games..
He did actually progress quite rapidly after determining to be a sprinter.
I think a big difference here is that he wasn't far from the best times of his era.
Craig is .56 off the WR with seemingly no way to close the gap...very tough!

Wells's late blossoming is further evidence that white athletes mature later than black athletes.

Very True...I got fast after 18 years of age. I dropped my 40 yard dash time from 5.3 at 16 to a legit 4.65 at 19. Most of it came through strength power training as I was lacking strength. Most Black Athletes develop earlier and it has been proven by geneticists that Black children are more coordinated at a younger age. Whites catch up after. Many whites give up after high school not realizing they are not fully developed while the Black athletes are developed earlier therefore dominate and get the scholarships.

Christophe Lemaitre does it again! He won the Rising Star Award for the Best Young European Athlete in Track and Field. Ramil Guliyev finished in 2nd place. I'm so happy for Christophe as he has had an amazing season. The Master is going to be a star for a very long time. Congrats to him and best of luck next season in his assault on breaking into the top 5-10 sprinters in the world. That is why we call him PepeLeFlew!

http://www.european-athletics.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7784&Itemid=2Edited by: white lightning

Here is another great article about Christophe Lemaitre. Even Usain Bolt had a few words to say about him. I can't wait for 2010. Viva Lemaitre!

http://www.european-athletics.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7795&Itemid=2Edited by: white lightning