Christophe Lemaitre "White Lightning" 9.92 and 19.80!

[albinosprint]

2010 will be the year we break 10!

 

[white lightning]

My slogan for next year is Sub 10 in 2010! I should say many sub 10's in 2010 as Guliyev, Lemaitre and on the verge and hopefully Pickering won't be far behind!

Some of us were dissapointed with the results of 2009. I'm not complaining. Just a few of the things we accomplished.

Lemaitre 6.64/10.04/20.68! New European 100 Meters All Time Record.

Guliyev 10.08/20.04! New European 200 Meters All Time Record. Also 2nd fastest 200 meters time by any junior sprinter ever. Only Bolt was faster as a teenager.

Robert Herring 10.34/20.41! Another fast teenager from Germany!

S.Bayer with an incredible long jump of 8.71 meters! Wow.

Both Gillick and Borlee under 45 seconds in the 400 meters!


Even if you look at Lematire and Guliyev alone. They are the best all around sprinters to come along since P.Mennea and V.Borzov when you look at their times. Then add on to that the fact that they did this at 19 years of age. Simply incredible.

I could list many other bright spots from this year but back to Lemaitre. I will save those for another thread.

Christophe Lemaitre has that special something that very few people in the world have. On top of his world class talent, he is as nice of a guy as you could meet. Very humble, and very likeable. The whole world will know his name by the end of next summer. Or at least anyone who takes the time to watch even a little bit of track. The sky is the limit. I hope he enjoys his time off as he is the brightest sprinting prospect to come out of Europe in a long time! Good luck to Christophe next year.Edited by: white lightning

 

[white lightning]

They gave out the awards tonight. Here is a link to the article about the ceromony. Congratulations to one of our favorite sprinters, Christophe Lemaitre!

http://www.european-athletics.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7857&Itemid=2Edited by: white lightning

 

[white lightning]

For those of you who don't know, Christophe will skip the 2010 World Indoor Championships to concentrate on the outdoor season. Especially so he can focus on the 2010 European Track and Field Championships. This is one track meet I would love to go to. Lemaitre, Guliyev and Pickering just to name a few. All of Europes finest sprinters will be there at their best. I'm hoping to see a few sub 10's by some of our guys if all goes right. I will have to record this track meet. I can't wait!

 

[albinosprint]

neither can I brother!

 

[yuri malenkov]

i was so sorry to see ramil draw lane 1 in the worlds 200m final, as it is impossible at that level to medal from the inside.
he is a level above edward from panama. as well, he is better than roberto skyers from cuba and james from grenada.
so he will be number one in the next few years and second to bolt until bolt gets a positive test.

i know that i ranked him second in the 100m behind lemaitre and that appears to be correct, however they are closer than one would expect. with blake done from a positive test and daniel bailey due to go down next, we have the 2 best 100m teenagers and no one close behind them

 

[white lightning]

Just to get you guys excited about next summer. I wish Pick got this kind of support in England. Christophe Lemaitre is the best sprinter in France period and at least they realize that! They will continue to support him on his rise to stardom!

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs116.snc3/16348_197405808414_701183414_3064089_5799147_s.jpg

Edited by: white lightning

 

[white lightning]

Another great interview with PepeLeFlew! He is focused on a big year!

http://translate.google.com/translate?tl=en&sourceid=ie8-activity&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.athle.com%2Fasp.net%2Fmain.news%2Fnews.aspx%3Fnewsid%3D7991Edited by: white lightning

 

[albinosprint]

good find WL. I really can't wait till spring, its going to be a great season!

 

[whiteathlete33]

Guys help me out a bit on this one as I know very little about track. Lemaitre has run a 10.04 but will he be able to pass the 10 second mark. I remember we had other runners who ran close to that mark early in their careers and then just never improved.

 

[StarWars]

Those athletes either didn't have speed endurance (Nagel/ Osovnikar/ etc.), were not showing a trend of improving (Shirvo/ Woronin), or did not take it seriously enough (Combest/ Shirvo/ etc).

Lemaitre and Guliyev are the classic 100m srpinters, finishing strong in the last 40 meters. I don't know about Guliyev becaue he is inconsistent, but Lemaitre is literally a ticking time bomb. People who compare him to Shirvo are just really dumb. Lemaitre honestly would've broke 10 if he didn't false start in Berlin). He ran 10.24 jogging into a negative wind in the prelims.

 

[whiteathlete33]

I just hope these guys continue to progress and don't suffer the white curse in track where they are very dominant early in their careers but don't improve. I am definite that blacks like Bolt and others use PED's on a consistent basis.

 

[StarWars]

I wouldn't call it a curse. Honestly, the odds that Shirvo, Nagel, Osovnikar, and many others would break 10 were not that great. I guess any one of them could've got lucky and ran a good race with 2 m/s wind behind them and be sub 10, but other than that hope none of them were natural sub 10 sprinters. Unfortunately, even Pickering, Blum, Schwab, and many others now are the exact same mold. Basically, we have to wait for a good wind for these guys to break 10. Woronin ran 10.00 and honestly wasn't even as fast as 10.11 Allen Wells, Woronin just got lucky with a huge wind behind him. Without PEDs, this i the fate of most sprinters, who are better suited for the 50/ 60m.

With Lemaitre. That's a whole different story. He's a pure 100/200 meter sprinter. He's got wheels, and I could see him breaking 9.9 relatively easily in the future. Basically, until I saw Lemaitre run, I thought a sub 10 could never be done clean. I still don't think a clean sub 9.80 is possible, but Lemaitre really is the real deal. By comparing Lemaitre to Shirvo and Pickering (as much as I like those guys), it's almost an insult.

 

[white lightning]

Christophe Lemaitre should have another nickname. I call him PepeLeFlew, and many call him the Master. Another great nickname would be "The Natural". This kid was born to sprint. No doubt about it and the sky is the limit. He has the ability to eat up and a track with his long natural strides like very few guys on earth. To say he is special is an understatement. He is a phenom in the making.

Think about it. He broke the all time european junior 100 meters record. He has run faster natural as a teenager than even guys who have juiced at the same age. This kid can go all of the way to the top. He can and should be able to compete with guys like Bolt, Gay and Powell by 2012! Christophe is that good. He just needs to stay hungry, have good health and get stronger. Improving his start and fine tuning his form will also make a nice difference. The big thing is that he is so good that he can go sub 10 with no wind. Soon he might be able to go sub 10 into a negative wind. It is just a matter of time. This kid is incredible. The Pride of France!

 

[white lightning]

Christophe opened up with a new personal best of 6.64 today to win his race. He broke his previous p.b. by .08 of a second! Congrats Christophe on a fine showing indeed. I have a feeling. This years going to be a good year.

 

[whiteathlete33]

Christophe opened up with a new personal best of 6.64 today to win his race. He broke his previous p.b. by .08 of a second! Congrats Christophe on a fine showing indeed. I have a feeling. This years going to be a good year.

Whitelightning, I am in the dark as far as track goes but Maurice Greene holds the 60m record I believe. Is there any chance of Christophe beating it?

 

[white lightning]

Christophe has run a 6.64 in the 60 meters which is very good for a tall sprinter. He is a long ways away from the world record of 6.39 but he is only 19 years of age. It is possible but he will always be a better outdoor 100/200 meters sprinter due to his height. The same with U.Bolt because he is tall as well. I would guess that Christophe can eventually get into the 6.50 range with alot of hard work. The more important thing is that he has the potential to be even faster than Maurice Greene int he 100. Lemaitre has the talent, genetics and potential to possibly become the fastest man in the world someday over 100 meters. The 60 is not that big a deal because outdoors is where the fame and the money is at. It's all about winning the World Championships and Olympics to be crowned the fastest man in the world!

Christophe has already run faster than any teenager ever in Europe including the juiced up black sprinters like D.Chambers and many others. He is already as fast as any white sprinter that has ever lived and is but 19 years of age. His future has unlimited potential if he stays hungry & healthy. He is by far the most exciting white sprinter ever but his story is just starting. STAY TUNED!Edited by: white lightning

 

[white lightning]

Not sure what happened but they must have changed the time. I read the articles yesterday but his official time is the 2nd fastest 60 in the world at the moment. He ran a 6.62 which is incredible for his first outing of the season. He was flying. Here is a link to the top lists world wide for the 60 as of today. Keep it up Christophe! This guy is amazing.

http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/toplists/inout=i/age=n/season=2010/sex=M/all=n/legal=A/disc=60/detail.htmlEdited by: white lightning

 

[white lightning]

Another day and another personal best for Christophe. He ran a new indoor p.b. of 21.13 in the 200 meters today. So he has set two pb's in his first two races! I hope someone posts the 200 on youtube.com soon. I have seen the 60 meters race and he just demolished everyone. What a sprinter! Keep it up Christophe! PHENOM!

 

[trackster]

Perhaps someone has posted this link earlier, but if you want to have your breath taken away, check out the various 100m races at: http://www.youtube.com/user/CHRISTOPHELEMAITRE#p/u/9/DB6hhhUM-fk. (It's a youtube channel with a lot of his races, as well as some not-so-interesting training videos)

There are maybe 4 or 5 100m's in there, and it's pretty much always the same story: LeMaitre gets off to a so-so start, he's a little behind, then he's running even, then they switch camera angles, and you suddenly realize that in the space of about ten yards he has completely separated from the rest of the field. And then he crosses the line 5-10 meters in front of everyone else. There's a couple of those races where you just stare and think, "how is that possible?" The most ridiculous one is the France Jeunes 100m clip. His competition is so far outclassed it isn't even funny.

Also, lightning, do you have a link to the video of that 60m he just ran? I'd love to see that one, and the 200, too, if you find it.

 

[white lightning]

I have seen both races. They are posted on his facebook. I am one of his friends. I'm trying to get permission. I hoping he will put it on youtube. It is up to him. I do have his 60 race posted on my facebook account. Send me a private message if you have a facebook account. Give me your full name so I can search for you and do a friend request. Then you can see the video of the 60. I might just post the 200 race as well. I can tell you this, he smoked the field in both races. No one within 10 meters or so. He is special and his top end speed in from another planet. Trust me. He is for real!

 

[trackster]

Rats. I'll just have to wait, as I've absolutely refused to join Facebook, no matter how many people have asked. The Internet has already occupied too much of my life. I'm not going to let it steal another half hour a day!

Back to LeMaitre, I've never seen another sprinter run with his same bounding/driving style, and yet, at the same time, something about it seems familiar. Finally it came to me: He runs with the same style that a long jumper uses at the beginning of his approach. That's where I'd seen that powerful bounding drive before. It's unusual, but, man, does it work for him.

The good thing about the Internet, of course, is that just a few years ago, we wouldn't have known anything about a sprinter in France, much less a teenage sprinter in France. Same goes for all the high school and college runners we're following. But, having never followed runners this young before, I don't know what to reasonably expect from them later. I don't know how common it is for young, fast runners to plateau at age 20 or keep progressing to 25. Watch and learn.

At any rate, I was glad to see LeMaitre still running 200's. In light of the question I just raised, about developing young talent, I went back and checked on Bolt's progression since he was 15, and it turns out that Bolt started out primarily runnng 400's and 200's. In fact, as recently as 2009, he still ran a 45 second 400. So I think there is much to be gained from developing speed endurance even if your primary focus is on the 100.

Enough rambling. I may create a mid-distance thread later.

 

[white lightning]

Christophe is going to run in another indoor meet this weekend. He wants to get into the 6.50's range! Let's hope for a good result. I would like to see him break both his 60 and 200 personal bests again soon. I just don't want to see him burn himself out indoors. He is not competing in the World Indoor Championships so he needs to make sure he concentrates on the outdoor season. I love watching him race but seeing him run multiple sub 10's this summer is what is most important.

I have to admit, I'm very tempted to switch my avatar which has remained for around 3 years now. The problem is that both of these guys are my favorites. Maybe I should have a split avatar. Lol. Either way, Christophe is "The Master".

That is why I call himepeLeFlew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[StarWars]

I predict 6.59 and 20.99. WL, who is running at the inddor WC? Cerutti, the Germans? I bet Wissman and Gillick do. 44.57 is the indoor 400 record and one of the Europeans could take it (Gillick!!!).What about Pickering?

 

[trackster]

He won easily, but only with a 6.66. Hopefully, he was just having an off day, as he really needs to improve his start to be competitive at the top ranks.