Christophe Lemaitre "White Lightning" 9.92 and 19.80!

[swampfox]

let's just hope that, as seems often the case, the white athletes don't perform tenths down on their season bests.

I just don't want to see the mid ten teens guys struggling with 10.30/10.40. I don't want to see Christophe as the token white sprinter either.

My thoughts............
Jason Smyth is about peaked at 10.22 (+2.0). If he can squeak in a sub 10.20 with close to zero wind I'd say his inclusion has been a total success.
Ronald Arajs is strong and tall but his 10.18 with a 1.4 will need to be done with an equivalent of nil wind to impress.
Marek Niit's 10.21 had a 1.9 following wind. He'll need to improve the equivalent of 1 and a half metres immediately.
Darius Kuc is where he was 5 years ago. But his 10.15 was with +2.0mps and at home in Krakow. I don't consider the other Polish sprinter Woronin's 10.00 legitimate for exactly the same reasons. I consider Kuc a mid 10.20s man at best
Rytis Sakalauskas 10.14 (-0.2) would probably get him to the semis if he can repeat or slightly better it.
The good sprinters do these times into negative winds, no sweat.

Apart from that - no Germans, no Italians, no Greeks. Strange indeed! The only other white sprinter isn't there.

I think we should have one finalist and (in an uncharacteristic fit of presumptious hope) 2 others (Kuc and Sakalauskas) into the semis. We'll know in 5 hours

Good call! But it's Rodriguez instead. Sakalauskas missed by a whisper.

 

[Izwal]

I've tried to compile CL results and to correct his times according to wind force.
Well, it seems that CL has very regular results since 2009.

I may have missed some races, and also the correction I have done may not be accurate.
But we see that even if there is a progression this year, in fact it is not so impressive if you look at last column only.

It would be interesting to do the comparison with other sprinters...

 

[albinosprint]

wow, he's in a stacked heat for his next race. it will be the pressure tester for him.

 

[mattgianone]

He will beat Thompson but he will probably have to make it in on time.

 

[white lightning]

What crazy luck that he has to race Bolt and Frater in the semis. The kid can't catch a break. We will see what he is made of. i agree that he might have to get in on time. I'm a little worried as he might be really nervous facing these guys in the semifinals. He can't afford to false start yet he has to get a very good start. Not much room for errror! If anyone is up for the task, it is Christopher.

I'm going to be so excited for this race. Come on PepeLeFlew. You can do it! Show them why you are "the master"!

 

[trackster]

Dang! That semi-final heat is ridiculous! It might as well be the final. Meanwhile, the third semi-final would have been a breeze. And Christophe looked GREAT in the heat. He totally embarrassed Justin Gatlin.

Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed. And no matter what happens in that confounded 100 semi, mark my words: no one can keep him off the medal stand in the 200. That's his real race, bad curve-running and all.

 

[white is right]

Yes he got a terrible draw considering he won his quarter final going away. Gatlin should have been in his heat and Lemaitre in the 3rd heat. That said he should still qualify if he runs his own race and doesn't false start. He looks like he has more in the tank than Thompson or Frater.

 

[white lightning]

Gentlemen, we are going to witness history in the making tonight. Lemaitre will be ready and he will run a new p.b. My only fear is that it will take so much out of him that it will possilby effect him in the finals some. Regardless, I am behind him all the way as are all of us here at this board. This guy is amazing and we need to just send positive energy his way. Let's sit back and enjoy this epic moment!op2:

 

[mastermulti]

semi draw doesn't really worry me.
He relishes competition and the next two fastest go through anyway. Probably both of those will be in his semi.

We keep talking PBs but the wind hasn't yet shown itself to be beneficial

 

[Izwal]

Here is a comparison of the 7 heats. Each snapshot is taken at 5.0s (this is not very accurate, of course). This is interesting because even if some sprinters stop their effort before the finish line, I think that all of them run at their maximum at the begining of the race.

At mid-race, Usain Bolt is clearly faster, but then CL is not so far from the others, and given the fact that he has a very good finish, well well well... maybe that we can hope the best for him.

 

[white lightning]

Great pics. Thanks for posting these. My problem I have is that Bolt looks like Super Man again. He didn't run for the last 6 to 7 strides. He just makes it look like a video game. He is on something. Many of the sprinters if not most of them are on something but he makes everyone look like their stuck in concrete. All summer he looked human. Then he takes the last month off and he looks like a total different sprinter. Something about them yams! Yeah right. It's way more than yams and anyone that can't see it should look again!!

 

[Twinsen9]

If you have a link... thanks

 

[trackster]

Very interesting pics. I agree with Lightning that Bolt looks superhuman again (this was also my impression from watching the race live). LeMaitre is clearly farther along than Dix and Frater. I'd say he was exactly tied with Carter. Blake and Collins, however, have a clear step on him.

I'm nervous about that stacked semi, but I guess it will be happening in the middle of the night (after my power will undoubtedly be knocked out). So I probably won't get the results for a while.

 

[white is right]

Yes Bolt is looking super human again. Unless he was over trained there should be no way he is looking like superman at this point as he was peaking for a relative fizzle in June and July. I think Bolt wins in a 9.6X(weather permitting).

 

[white lightning]

http://linkupvideos.com/track2.html

 

[Izwal]

CL qualified for the final round!

 

[Izwal]

Final start list. Why is CL at lane 8? He did better than Daniel Bailey for example, who is at lane 2.

 

[mastermulti]

Blake handled the whole scenario well.
Lemaitre did not! Struggled down the track. I think Bolt's F/S gave him new expectations and a severe case of the jitters.
Who would have predicted nothing under 10.11 all meet?

 

[Izwal]

Usain Bolt disqualified. CL could have won a medal. A time of 10.08 was maybe reachable, even with a -1.4 m/s wind.

 

[white lightning]

I'm sad but still proud of him. To finish in 4th place has to be killing him inside. He tried guys. The pressure can get to anyone. We should ask Asafa Powel about that one among countless others over the years. He still make us proud. Christophe still can win a couple of medals in the 200 and relay if all goes well. Congrats to Christophe on finishing 4th in the world. At the end of the day, it could have been so much worse.

The same thing that killed him early in the year came back to haunt him at the end of the year in his biggest race of his life. A bad start will kill just about any sprinter over 100 meters. If he starts better, he would have won silver or bronze. Let's just remember that he is human and we all make mistakes. A good but not great perfomance by Christophe. There will be many more chances and he will learn from this.

 

[white is right]

Wow the semi-finals and finals had a lot of plot twists. Lemaitre seemed to have gotten screwed by the 3 semi-final format. I think if he had been placed in lane 7 or 2 he could have been in touch with the field more. Placing 4th in a weird final like this isn't what I thought about before this meet started, but I would have been happy to see Lemaitre make the final anyway.

 

[LoLy]

congrats to Lemaitre.
Even if he and we are disapointed , because there were space for a medal, let's thinks that a 21 year old white guy finished 4 th!
if the times was so slow, and if Bolt got disqualified, that means that this race was very special.
I'm very optimistic for 200m, and for 2012.
I'm proud of him.
regarding his race , he said that he had problem to get concentrated for the final, even in the waiting room. it can happens to the best (look at bolt)

 

[freddie]

I heard that the blood testing was changed to being voluntary. So do they blood or urine test just medalists, or selected finalists or random competitors?

 

[Bk21]

I missed the semi and the finals, driving on the road back!!
Anyone has a beginning of an explanation about these poor times? not just Christophe but everyone! a 10.08 gets a silver medal is kinda weird!
About the false start of Bolt, I have a feeling that it was intentional.. I hope he'll get tested anyway

 

[white lightning]

http://www.youtube.com/user/wiley1?feature=mhee#p/a/f/0/JV42i4v-2f4